Introduction to Vol. 12 No.1 (2024)

Dear reader,

It gives me great pleasure to announce the publication of a new issue of Frontline Learning Research, comprising five articles. These five articles span much of the focus of learning research, in that they between them address such different questions as teachers’ technology integration, learning in virtual simulation environments, progression of opportunities to learn through teacher training, higher education’s impact on students’ civic engagement, and dimensions of teaching quality.

Lachner and colleagues develop an analytical model of teachers’ technology integration, which unites previously unrelated strands of research into teacher competence and professional vision. The model further adds the dimension of effect of teachers’ technology integration on students’ learning processes and their achievement. The result is the TPTI-model: teachers’ professional competence for technology integration, with four main focus areas: teachers’ antecedents (professional competence); process of technology integration; processes of learning (for students); and students’ antecedents (pre-requisites). The authors point out that important next steps in research consist in empirically testing the relationships posited in the model.

Sellberg and colleagues investigate the potential for developing visual expertise in virtual simulation environments, specifically in a case study of maritime pilots. In contrast to previous studies that focus on so-called negative skills transfer due to deficiencies in the simulation, the authors explore how the trainees themselves notice, handle and learn from adapting to the shortcomings in the simulator environment. Based on their study, the authors argue that the challenges encountered in the simulation may in fact add to the expertise of the trainees. Specifically, the trainees’ awareness of specific discrepancies between navigation in the simulator and on board a boat can lead to enriched conceptual, methodological and technical knowledge of navigation.

The article by Nielsen reports from a study of how student teachers’ perceptions of their opportunities to learn in field practice develop with the progression of their teacher education programme. Focus is on opportunities to learn through observation, own practice and feedback on practice. Participants were 560 Danish student teachers; one third at each of three levels of field practice. Participants answered an online survey and Nielsen utilises chain graph models to analyse the data. She documents that teacher students’ perception of opportunities to learn through observation of fellow students and teachers declined as the programme progressed, whereas their perception of opportunities to learn through own practice increased as the programme progressed.

The study by van den Wijngaard and colleagues centres on the impact of higher education on students’ civic engagement. Based on a literature review, the authors argue for shifting focus from civic engagement itself to two constituents: political interest and agency. These two constituents are the dependent variables of the empirical part of their study. Here, the authors investigate if and how the constituents develop over time for students at a small international liberal arts college in the Netherlands. They document four distinctly different patterns in the development of both constituents. In consequence, analyses at the level of individual student profiles appear necessary, as this allows a more nuanced picture of how civic engagement evolves than analysis of at group level.

The article by Alp Christ, Capon-Sieber and colleagues takes a renewed look at an established model of teaching quality, namely The Three Basic Dimensions model which focuses on the three dimensions of cognitive activation, classroom management and student support. The authors point out that despite its prevalence, the model, and in particular the mediating paths it proposes, has only been submitted to very limited empirical investigation. The present article remedies this problem by reporting a study of the mediating role of depth-of-processing, time-on-task and need satisfaction. The model is initially supplemented with further potential mediating paths, allowing a more nuanced investigation. The empirical investigation only confirmed some of the hypothesised relationships and highlighted that conceptual and methodological choices can have a significant influence on the results.

The full issue is found here.

Warm regards,

Professor, Dr. Nina Bonderup Dohn

Editor-in-Chief, Frontline Learning Research