Though the authors are careful to state that improvements in student engagement cannot be attributed entirely to highlighting student voice, the bulk of the paper is devoted to the idea that refining course activities based on student resulted through successive iterations in an increase in the density of students' reading networks. "They theorized more deeply, introduced more authoritative resources, and made greater efforts to integrate ideas within the community knowledge base." I don't think we can draw any quantitative conclusions or generalizations from a study of 23 MEd students; the best we can say here is that attending to student feedback can improve engagement. I am therefore quite sceptical about the theoretical structure imposed on this research (specifically, the assertion that "the design of Knowledge Building activities may influence the level of social, cognitive, and emotional engagement") and would say that it obscures, rather than clarifies, any conclusion that can be drawn from this work.
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