Suchergebnisse

This study of the education system of Belgium is part of the handbook "The education systems of Europe" which presents an analytical description of the education systems of all European countries, following common guidelines. The study begins with the historical and socio-cultural background of the Belgian educational system which is followed by the description of the organizational and administrative context of the current education system. The next step is the functioning of the current education system, beginning with a structural overview and followed by an analysis of the different levels of the education system, including, as a separate chapter, post-secondary and tertiary education. The country study ends with an analysis of current problems and discussions, and opens perspectives for further development. A diagram illustrating the structural scheme of the Belgian educational system is part of this article. (DIPF/Orig./Kie.).

The present research studied the effect of learning in asynchronous discussion groups on students' levels of knowledge construction. Multilevel analyses were applied to uncover the influence of student, group, and task variables on the one hand and the specific effect of the assignment of roles to group members on other hand. Results indicate that students'attitudes toward the learning environment and their engagement in the discussion group are significant predictors. As to the effect of role assignment, no significant overall difference in students' mean levels of knowledge construction between the role and no role condition was observed. However, additional analyses revealed that (a) the distribution patterns of the levels of knowledge construction differed as students in the role condition more often reached the highest level, and (b) assigning students the role of summarizer resulted in significantly higher levels of knowledge construction.

This study focused on the introduction of roles as a scripting tool in asynchronous text-based discussion groups. Five roles were selected: source searcher, theoretician, summarizer, moderator, and starter. Because existing research on role assignment often neglects to check whether the role assignment is successful, the main goal was to examine to what extent the participants enacted assigned roles. The study took place in the 1st year of a university course in Instructional Sciences ( N = 200). Quantitative content analysis of students' postings was performed, and logistic regressions revealed that all participants enacted the roles they were assigned. The participants generally did not neglect other activities while discussing. The introduction of roles appeared to be a successful structuring intervention.

On game forums, players often discuss the positive impact of video games on their lives. We collected 964 messages from top ranked game forums ( viaAlexa.com ) and analyzed them using a coding scheme based on an existing taxonomy about the impact of the arts. This directed qualitative content analysis resulted in an exploration of how players' talk about the impact of video games reflects broader cultural rhetorics. By analyzing players' positive experiences using a theory-based coding scheme that is attentive to the wide array of effects that have been ascribed to the arts, this study offers a broad perspective on the attributed impact of video games.