Table Of ContentRecent Research in Psychology
J.M. Pieters K. Breuer
P.R.J. Simons (Eds.)
Learning Environments
Contributions from Dutch
and German Research
Springer-Verlag
Berlin Heidelberg New York London
Paris Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona
Editors
Jules M. Pieters
Department of Education, University of Twente
PO. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Klaus Breuer
Department of Educational Sciences, Paderborn University
4790 Paderborn, FRG
P. Robert-Jan Simons
Department of Educational Sciences, Nijmegen University
P.O. Box 9103,6500 HD Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ISBN-13 :978-3-540-52903-3 e-ISBN-13 :978-3-642-84256-6
DOl: 1O.l007/978-3-642-84256-6
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1990
2126/3140-543210 - Printed on acid-free paper
PREFACE
In April 1989 Dutch and German educational researchers met each other at
the Campus of the University of Twente, for the third time in a joint meeting.
This meeting was organized by the Dutch OTG Onderwijsleerprocessen, the
German Arbeitsgruppe fUr Empirische Padagogische Forschung and the Fach
gruppe Padagogische Psychologie. A selection of papers presented at that
meeting contributed to this book about learning environments. Different
perspectives have been bundled and an overview is presented of Dutch and
German research carried out within the domain of learning environments.
These perspectives pertain to various system levels (learning activities,
classroom and school) and to various disciplinary views (pedagogical,
psychological, sociological). Most contributions pertain to the psychological
view. The book deals with several aspects of learning environments: classroom
environments, evaluation of learning environments, computer-based environ
ments, environments for meta-learning, and theoretical issues of learning
environments.
We are grateful to Jan van den Berg for his editorial assistance and to the
Institute for Educational Research in the Netherlands for making this publi
cation possible.
Jules M. Pieters
Enschede, The Netherlands
Klaus Breuer
Paderborn, West-Germany
P. Robert-Jan Simons
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
CONTENTS
Preface v
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Learning environments: An introduction
I.M. Pieters, K Breuer & P.RI. Simons 3
Part I: CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS
Facilitating adults' learning by coaching: Development and
evaluation of an andragogical model of continuing vocational
education within industrial companies
1. Reischmann 19
Concepts of schooling and the learning environment:
A relationship tested in law faculties
I.K Oosthoek 31
Work simulation: A natural environment for learning
job skills and job attitudes
M.I. Treep & I.M. Pieters 45
Teacher enthusiasm: Congruence between ratings
and behaviour
e. Schwaner & W. Schreiber-Neumann 55
Teacher praise and classroom climate:
Another paradoxical relation
P.e. van der Sijde, S. Dijkstra & EA.M.M. Bennink 67
PART II: EVALUATION OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Assessing the quality of kindergarten environments
with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale
H. G. Rofibach 77
VIII
School-provided measures against truancy and drop-out
BJ. van Kesteren & K Tj. Bos 91
Some school effectiveness indicators and their relation
to school characteristics
K Tj. Bos, A.M. Ruijters & A.l ViSscher 105
PART TIl: COMPUTER-BASED ENVIRONMENTS
The use of a computer microworld as a learning
environment to develop conceptual change in the
field of mechanics
F.E. van 't Hul, P.L. Lijnse & A. Moes 121
Intelligent tutoring system for learning English
G. Kanselaar, H. Wichmann, M. Giezeman, 1 Zuidema,
1 van der Veen & L. Koster 133
A genetic model for tutoring addition and subtraction
skills in an adaptive computer program
M Beishuizen, E. Felix & 11 Beishuizen 151
A production system explaining errors in long division
of learning disabled students in junior vocational education
CM van Putten & MA. de Ronde 163
A computer simulation of the acquisition of a
computational skill in a discovery-oriented microworld
M.l /ppel & CIM Meulemans 177
A systematic problem approach in business administration:
A methodology to make knowledge explicit for Computer
Assisted Instruction
A.T.l Vemooij 193
On the surplus of computerized traffic education
M Wierda, A. van den Burg & P. Tromp 207
IX
PART IV: ENVIRONMENTS FOR META-LEARNING
Metacognition: Learning to learn and learning to think
M.A. Wolters 221
General and differential effectiveness of
learning-to-Iearn programs
F.P. Buchel 235
Teaching problem solving in higher education:
'From field regulation to self-regulation
C. Terlouw & A. Pilot 253
Executive control, self-regulation trained in mathematics
F.P.C.M. de long 267
Children's reflection on text-coherence during reading
IH. Boonman 279
The Leittext method: Learning to learn in commerce
and industry
C. C.l Teurlings 287
Training self-regulation in several educational fields
B.H.A.M. van Hout Wolters 299
PART V: THEORETICAL ISSUES OF LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
Measuring individual differences in cognitive processes:
How a speed-accuracy methodology can improve the results
D.F. Lohman 307
The influence of topic interest, prior knowledge
and cognitive capabilities on text comprehension
U. Schiefele 323
Instructional implications of recent research and empirically
based theories on the effect of prior knowledge on learning
F.IR C. Dochy 339
Contributors' addresses 357
General introduction
Learning Environments: An Introduction
J.M. Pieters, K. Breuer and P.R.J. Simons
University of Twente, The Netherlands,
University of Paderbom, F.R Germany
University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the chapters of the book Some recent
theoretical and design characteristics of learning environments are discussed.
Different disciplinary perspectives can be discerned: pedagogical, psychological,
and sociological. But also the characteristics of the learning environments can
be studied as being part of the system level on which they are pertinent: the
global school leve~ the intennediate classroom leve~ and the local learning
activity level.
INTRODUCTION
Recently there has been a growing interest in the characteristics of the task
environment of the learner. Not only the physical environment is meant by
this, but also the intellectual environment that facilitates the learning
process. Traditionally, this environment consisted of teacher(s) and stu
dents. In ancient times the learning environment was created by the master
who taught the novice student by introducing him to an environment that
was almost identical to the real context of performing a job. In medieval
times in Europe the so-called guild system was very prominent as a voca
tional-training system. Students learned professional skills by interacting
with real tools also used by experts. They gradually became experts
themselves through a process in which the influence of the master faded.
This form of apprenticeship learning has almost disappeared in the West
ern educational system of nowadays. Apprenticeship-like practice became a
small part of the curriculum of vocational-training systems, at the end of
the formal training within schools. Within these systems more emphasis is
put on the acquisition of basic skills and also of cognitive skills that are
supposed to transfer to other situations, in particular the job context. There
is no dyadic interaction of teacher and student any more. Less collabora-
4 Pieters, Breuer & Simons
tive learning takes place. Instruction is to be given by a teacher before a
class of 20 to 30 students or even more. Learning research therefore
concentrated on the conditions that make effective learning within these
environments possible, e.g. instructional strategies to be used by the
teacher, communication between teacher and students, and interaction
between students.
Before the technological revolution came to an important impetus within
the field of learning and instruction, theories of instructional design were
assumed to pertain to instruction presented to groups of students through
traditional means such as lectures, demonstrations and texts. A limited
form of communication, almost always one-way, was permitted due to
technological inadequacies and constraints. But quite recently, great
progress has been made in computation and storage capacity of technologi
cal aids and this has a positive effect on designing intelligent learning
environments. Still, the main goal to accomplish is to promote the relevant
cognitive processes and also to promote their immediate use in context. By
the time technological resources became more available research was
concentrated on text design and text processing, audio-visual design and
even computer-based instruction. Individual learning became possible and
there was a tendency to ban the teacher. Information technology runs our
life, so why cannot it run our schools and our learning processes? But quite
recently, maybe due to a nostalgic tendency to the good old days there has
been a growing interest in apprenticeship learning (e.g. Resnick, 1987;
Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Their
work on apprenticeship learning originates from cognitive anthropological
studies by Scribner, Rogoff and Lave (in Rogoff & Lave, 1984) ..T hey
stated that effective learning has to be situated in a context similar to the
one in which the skills will be used, that student and master or coach have
to be active participants in this intellectual enterprise, and that cognitive
processes are to be externalised and displayed for inspection and reflec
tion. Success depends on the instantiation of these design features of
cognitive apprenticeship. Thus, realistically simulated environments play a
major role in transferring inert knowledge into workable procedures to
apply in the context of their use. Learning environments can become
effective instructional environments if the purpose of the design is to
facilitate the cognitive processes by letting the student solve authentic
problems within the defined learning environment. In this way it is possible
to create what Montague (1988) calls a working environment or functional
context for learning. The heuristics in the study of Montague for a func-
