This instrumental case study explores and theorizes on the educational potential and value of free collaborative vocal improvisation, a process that enables equal access to music regardless of musical skills. The focus of the article is on the musical activities of an adult choir in Finland that applied tenets from improvisational theatre to…

Learner-centered blended learning approaches, such as Knowledge Creation, emphasize the self-organizing characteristic of thought and action, and value the students' autonomy and self-regulation during the engagement in collaborative learning tasks. In blended contexts, the students need to organize their learning paths within a complex…

The purpose of this study was to explore six-year-old Finnish preschoolers' collaboration during a designing session, where they received a task to collaboratively design and sketch forest animals' nests. Peer interaction is a natural part of craft, design and technology education because the learning situation itself provides various…

This study aimed at modifying a teaching and learning model for a geographic inquiry to enhance both the subject-related skills of geography and so-called twenty-first century skills in middle-school students (14-15 years old). The purpose of this research is to extend our understanding of the user experiences concerning certain tools for learning…

Many geographers graduating from universities enter an international and project-based professional life, which includes working in geographically dispersed project teams. In Europe, the Bologna process aligned study programs and supported student mobility to prepare students for such a work environment. However, research on higher education has…

In this article, we present a study focusing on the learning experiences of business students in an organizational and marketing communication course. The pedagogical approaches of a flipped classroom, collaborative inquiry, and communication in the disciplines guided the planning of the course. A mixed-methods approach was used. The key findings…

This paper elaborates on the notion of object-oriented collaborative learning by building on empirical material from two case studies in higher education. Prior empirical findings show how knowledge objects are evolving entities, shaped by the interactions between participants, and how students learn from engaging in knowledge practice that…

This explorative case study longitudinally examines teacher orchestration of an inquiry learning process in a technology-enhanced elementary classroom. A 13-month investigative study on cultural artifacts was conducted on 32 fourth grade students who progressed to the fifth grade during the project. The activities were mediated and documented…

This activity report describes two cases of Language teaching for degree students in the University of Oulu with new pedagogical approaches aiming towards authentic working life skills. Co-creation, collaborative learning and cooperation across borders are the building blocks for these innovative language teaching projects. Case 1 describes…

Despite the numerous studies on social interaction in collaborative learning, little is known about interaction forms in successful computer-supported collaborative learning situations. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand student interaction in successful collaborative learning during a university course which was mediated by…

There is a growing demand to enhance entrepreneurship. This study aims at producing knowledge that can assist teachers in designing and supporting collaborative learning of entrepreneurship in vocational education. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. The outcome of this study provides a better understanding of the factors that hinder…

The emphasis on student cognitive knowledge and expertise in social work education has been shifting more toward reflective learning that features learning networks and dialogical interaction. In the context of innovative knowledge communities for promoting social work expertise, educators have become facilitators of learning that is expanding…

This socioculturally informed study aims to apply learning by collaborative designing (LCD) as an instructional model for the creation and studying of new kinds of connected learning systems in teacher education. A case study was organized at the University of Eastern Finland in the context of an information and communication technology (ICT)…

In this paper, the Gartner Group's hype cycle is used as the basis for categorizing and analyzing research on the educational use of ubiquitous computing. There are five phases of the hype cycle: the technology trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity.…

The significance of socially shared metacognitive regulation (SSMR) in collaborative learning is gaining momentum. To date, however, there is still a paucity of research of how SSMR is manifested in asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), and hardly any systematic investigation of SSMR's functions and evolution across…