Even though classroom discussion is considered an essential element of citizenship education, research indicates that pre-vocational students have fewer opportunities to practice with these discussions than their pre-academic peers. To provide more insight into pre-vocational teaching strategies to facilitate citizenship-related classroom discussions that allow for variation in familiarity with discussion, we analyzed observations of plenary discussion moments during 26 lessons at three Dutch secondary schools. Classrooms less familiar with discussion seem to benefit from a focus on structural aspects of discussion and avoiding strict content regulation, whereas classrooms more familiar with discussion profit from reflection on both process and content.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate relations between goal orientations, information processing strategies and development of conceptual knowledge of pre-vocational secondary education students (n=719; 14 schools). Student preferences for certain types of goals and information processing strategies were examined using questionnaires. Conceptual knowledge was investigated by having students create concept maps before and after a learning project. Structural and hierarchical analyses show that student preferences for mastery and performance goals positively affected their preferences for the use of deep information processing strategies. Use of surface information processing strategies negatively affected the development of conceptual knowledge.
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The purpose of this study was to validate a causal and hierarchical model that describes the relations between goal orientations, information processing strategies and development of conceptual knowledge of pre-vocational secondary education-students (n=719; 14 schools). Preferences of students for certain types of goals and information processing strategies were examined using questionnaires. The development of conceptual knowledge was investigated by having students create concept maps before and after a learning situation (e.g. a project). Results of causal and hierarchical analyses showed that students' preferences for mastery and performance goals positively affected their preferences for using deep information processing strategies. Performance of surface information processing strategies had a negative effect on the development of conceptual knowledge.
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