Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Direct instruction (PowerPoint presentations, lectures) often imposes hierarchical classroom structures where the teachers are considered experts, imparting knowledge to passive learners. However, the emergence of tools like Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) encourages the creation of democratic learning environments. We hypothesize that these tools lead to higher degrees of civil discourse within the classroom and create transformative learning trajectories for students, allowing them to create shared purpose to incite social change. By comparing reflectivity displayed in weekly students’ blogging assignments in a classroom using an MUVE (Second Life), and one using direct instruction, we sought to gauge the effect MUVEs had on students’ reflectivity with the passage of time. Results indicated that MUVEs facilitated more critical reflection and transformative learning trajectories as compared to direct instruction frameworks.

Keywords

critical reflection transformation transformative pedagogy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arnone

Small

Chauncey

McKenna

(2011). Curiosity, interest and engagement in technology-pervasive learning environments: A new research agenda. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(2), 181–198. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41414933

Bainbridge

W. S.

(2007). The scientific research potential of virtual worlds. Science, 317, 472.

Bartholomew

Jones

Glassman

(2012). A community of voices: Educational blog management strategies and tools. TechTrends, 56(4), 19–25.

Carter

T. J.

(2002). The importance of talk to midcareer women's development: A collaborative inquiry. The Journal of Business Communication, 39, 55–91.

Cohen

Arato

(1992). Civil society and political theory. MIT Press.

Collard

Law

(1989). The limits of perspective transformation: A critique of Mezirow’s theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 39(2), 99–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0001848189039002004

Cranton

(2000). Individual differences and transformative learning. In Mezirow

&Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation (pp. 181–204). Jossey-Bass.

Davis

D. C.

Ziegler

M. F.

(2000). Transformative learning at a large-system level: Using a participative research process to help change the culture of a state’s welfare system. In Wiessner

C. A.

Meyer

S. R.

Fuller

D. A.

(Eds.), The third international transformative learning conference: Challenges of practice: Transformative learning in action (pp. 1–10). Columbia University.

Dewey

(1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. Macmillan.

10.

Dewey

(1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. D.C. Heath.

11.

Dieterle

Clarke

(2009). Multi-user virtual environments for teaching and learning. In Pagani

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of multimedia technology and networking (2nd ed.) (pp. 1033–1041). Idea Group.

12.

Doğan

Çınar

Tüzün

(2018). Multi-user virtual environments for education. In Lee

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of computer graphics and games (pp. 1–7). Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_172-1

13.

Edirisingha

Salmon

Nie

(2009). 3-d multi-user virtual environments for socialization in distance learning. In Roberts

(Ed.), Users and innovation programme project presentations (pp. 20–24). JISC. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/altc2008presentations.pdf

14.

Fleming

(2000). Habermas on civil society, lifeworld and system: Unearthing the social in transformation theory. Teachers College Record Online, 1–10. http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/1058/1/HabermasTFleming.pdf

15.

Fleming

(2009). Condemned to learn: University and the learning society. In Murphy

Fleming

(Eds.), Habermas, critical theory and education (pp. 111–125). Taylor & Francis.

16.

Fleming

(2018). Critical theory and transformative learning: Rethinking the radical intent of Mezirow’s theory. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 9(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJAVET.2018070101

17.

Freire

Faundez

(1989). Learning to question. Continuum.

18.

Glassman

(2016). Educational psychology and the Internet. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316155134

19.

Glassman

(2019a). DeMOOCing society: Convivial tools to systems and back again in the information age. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(14), 1413–1422. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2018.1539827

20.

Glassman

(2019b). The internet as a context for participatory action research. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-019-10033-1

21.

Glassman

Bartholomew

Jones

(2011). Migrations of the mind: The emergence of open source education. Educational Technology, 51(4), 26–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44429928

22.

Glassman

Kang

(2016). Teaching and learning through open source educative processes. Teaching and Teacher Education, 60, 281–290.

23.

Glassman

Kuznetcova

Lin

T. J.

Tilak

Wang

Walling

Wen

(2020). Spaces of rebellion: The use of multi-user virtual environments in the development of learner epistemic identity. The Journal of Experimental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2020.1712311

24.

Habermas

(1970). Towards a theory of communicative competence. Inquiry, 13, 360–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/00201747008601597

25.

Habermas

(1984). The theory of communicative action: Reason and the rationalization of society. Beacon.

26.

Habermas

(1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society (Vol. 1). MIT Press.

27.

Joldersma

C. W.

Crick

R. D.

(2010). Citizenship, discourse ethics and an emancipatory. Model of lifelong learning. In Murphy

Fleming

(Eds.), Habermas, critical theory and education (pp. 137–153). Routledge.

28.

Kegan

(1994). In over our heads. Harvard University Press.

29.

Kember

McKay

Sinclair

Yuet Wong

F. K.

(2008). A four category coding scheme for coding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(4), 369–379. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701293355

30.

Kim

Glassman

(2013). Creating an educational context for open source intelligence: The development of internet self-efficacy through a blog centric course. Computers & Education, 69, 332–342.

31.

Kitchenham

(2008). The evolution of Jack Mezirow’s transformative learning theory. Journal of Transformative Education, 6(2), 104–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344608322678

32.

Kluge

Riley

(2008). Teaching in virtual worlds: Opportunities and challenges. Issues in Information Science and Information Technology, 5, 127–135.

33.

Kokkos

(2017). The contribution of aesthetic experience in transformative learning and bildung. In Laros

Fhur

Taylor

E. W.

(Eds.), Transformative learning meets bildung: An international exchange (pp. 331–340). Sense Publishers.

34.

Kreijns

Kirschner

P. A.

Vermeulen

(2013). Social aspects of CSCL environments: A research framework. Educational Psychologist, 48(4), 229–242.

35.

Kuznetcova

Glassman

Lin

T. J.

(2019). Multi-user environments as a pathway to distributed social networks in the classrooms. Computers & Education, 130, 26–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.11.004

36.

Kuznetcova

Teeple

Glassman

(2018). The dialectic of the avatar: Developing in-world identities in second life. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 10(1), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.10.1.59_1

37.

Lange

E. A.

(2015). The ecology of transformative learning: Transdisciplinary provocations. Journal of Transformative Learning, 3(1), 28–34. https://jotl.uco.edu/index.php/jotl/article/view/48/46

38.

Mälkki

(2010). Building on Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning: Theorizing the challenges to reflection. Journal of Transformative Education, 8(1), 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344611403315

39.

Mascitti

Fasciani

Stefanelli

(2012). Virtual worlds in education: AVATAR, ST.ART and Euroversity action-research initiatives. FormaMente, 1-2, 253 -265. https://formamente.guideassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012_1_2_Mascitti_et_al.pdf

40.

Mezirow

(1991). Transformative dimensions in adult learning. Jossey-Bass.

41.

Mezirow

(1995). Transformation theory of adult learning. In Welton

(Ed.), In defense of the lifeworld (pp. 39–70). SUNY Press.

42.

Mezirow

(2000). Learning to think like an adult: Core concepts of transformation theory. In Mezirow

& Associates (Eds.), Learning as transformation (pp. 3–34). Jossey-Bass.

43.

Mezirow

(2003). Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344603252172

44.

Nie

Edirisingha

Wheeler

(2009, June 10–13). Second life for archaeology, digital photography and media and communications education—three case studies [Conference presentation]. EDEN 2009 Conference Proceedings, Leicester, England.

45.

Papachristos

N. M.

Vrellis

Natsis

Mikropoulos

T. A.

(2014). The role of environment design in an educational Multi-User Virtual Environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45, 636–646. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12056

46.

Penuel

W. R.

Wertsch

J. V.

(2010). Vygotsky and identity formation: A sociocultural approach. Educational Psychologist, 30(2), 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3002_5

47.

Preece

(2000). Online communities: Designing usability and supporting sociability. John Wiley.

48.

Rovai

(2002). Building sense of community at a distance. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 3(1), 1–16. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/49515/

49.

Salmon

(2009). The future for (second) life and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 526–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00967.x

50.

Spanos

(1990). What was postmodernism? Contemporary Literature, 31(1), 108–115. https://doi.org/10.2307/1208640

51.

Taylor

E. W.

(2007). An update of transformative learning theory: A critical review of the empirical research (1999–2005). International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26(2), 173–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370701219475

52.

Taylor

E. W.

(2008). Transformative learning theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 119, 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.301

53.

Tennant

M. C.

(1991). The psychology of adult teaching and learning. In Peters

J. M.

Jarvis

, & Associate (Eds.), Adult education: Evolution and achievements in a developing field of study (pp. 191–216). Jossey-Bass.

54.

Theodore

P. A.

(2009). Real education in virtual space: Looking at a multi-user virtual environment through a Deweyan lens. Journal of Philosophy & History of Education, 59, 118–121.

55.

Tüzün

Bilgic

H. G.

Elci

S. Y.

(2019). The effects of 3D multi-user virtual environments on collaborative learning and social presence. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 11(3), 221–231. https://doi.org/10.26822/iejee.2019349247

56.

Vygotsky

L. S.

(1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

57.

Weber

R. P.

(1990). Basic content analysis (Vol. 49). Sage.

58.

Xie

Cheng

S. L.

Izmirli

(2017). The interactions between facilitator identity, conflictual presence, and social presence in peer-moderated online collaborative learning. Distance Education, 38(2), 230–244.

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) as Alternative Lifeworlds: Transformative Learning in Cyberspace

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References