Análisis de resultados

focus. For this, Coiro (2014) and Kiili and colleagues (Kiili et al., 2012; Kiili, 2013; Kiili et al., 2016) recommend collaborative online reading as a vehicle to support Internet search and comprehension in young students. Similarly, Mitra (2014b) supported solving challenging questions in groups using the Internet in adult unaided environments to ease the challenge of information comprehension of Internet material while promoting learning in students.

The current study is founded on the concept of Self-Organised Learning Environment (SOLE), which refers to “...the adaptation of a school space to facilitate Enquiry Based Learning. A teacher encourages his/her class to work as a community to answer

questions using computers with Internet access” (Mitra et al., 2010). SOLE suggests special conditions in which learning is instigated through an academic challenge and children working in groups to solve this challenge. These conditions are applied to the current research study to determine the impact of this approach on the reading skills of fourth-grade level students of New York City while explaining how this process works.

If SOLE was to be positioned according to educational approaches, it should be placed at the far end of Enquiry Based Learning and opposite to teacher centred instruction. In SOLE, information is in the hands of the students as they navigate the Internet and the

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teacher or adult is only to ensure safety and encouragement. Then in teacher centred approaches, teachers own the information and what s/he owns is what is given to the student, while the student plays the role of receiving the information. In this simple continuum of educational approaches, it is inferred that teachers and students move and shift according to the circumstances and the environment in which instruction takes place (Refer to figure 2.2). Therefore, the study of SOLE is from the perspective of Enquiry Based Learning, which encompasses problem-based learning, activity learning, group work, and design thinking. In SOLE students solve their own enquiries with minimal intervention from adults.

Figure 2.2 SOLE Positioning in Educational Approaches

The studies on SOLE must be understood under two different premises: some studies have been conducted in outdoor computer kiosks and others in indoor labs. The second premise is that for some groups of students, English is a native language while for others it is a language either introduced in schools or introduced in SOLE situations. Nonetheless, there seems to be a common thread holding these together: in SOLE, children self-organise for learning.

Studies about SOLE are scarce but promising. This stems from the specific conditions under which SOLE occurs: minimal adult intervention, student-centred learning, motivator outside the parameters of traditional education and at times, learning in public kiosks (Mitra et al., 2005; Dangwal and Thounaojam, 2011; Mitra, 2014b; Mitra and Dangwal, 2017). Research reports student improvement in different academic areas (Mitra and Rana, 2001; Mitra and Dangwal, 2010), computer skills (Mitra and

Enquiry Based Learning: Students develop own enquiries,

teacher mediates

Democratic Education: Students take charge of

what they learn

SOLE: Students navigate info, while adult

provides safety encouragement Teacher owns and

gives information Teacher gives direct instruction when necessary Teacher & Students share learning activities

Transition from Teacher to Student Centred instruction or vice

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Dangwal, 2017) and personal growth (Dangwal and Kapur, 2008; Dangwal and Kapur, 2009). Finally, SOLE has been implemented in over 110 countries and educators and learning enthusiasts recognize it as a successful practice.

Similar to findings in autonomy research (Reeve, 2002), SOLE studies identified the different student characteristics observed in computer kiosks leading to self-organised learning: social development, social networking, and openness to learn from others (Dangwal and Kapur, 2009). These findings are consistent with the research in peer collaboration and self-determination, which relies on student’s interactions for the solution of challenges (Ryan and Deci, 2000).

The impact of SOLE on student reading comprehension skills has been researched even less. Inamdar (2004) reported students’ passing scores of a computer literacy state examination by use of this teacher-unaided approach in outdoor computer kiosks. Similarly, Mitra and Dangwal (2010) reported that when groups of 10 to 14 year olds worked under SOLE conditions in computer kiosks with access to advanced academic material, they achieved test scores comparable to students who received traditional instruction in the classroom in the same academic area. Even if the focus of this study was not reading, it implies that students read complex material to achieve these test scores. Although preliminary, these findings bring attention to children’s ability to negotiate meaning together in unsupervised Internet supported environments.

Mitra and Quiroga (2012) tested the reading comprehension competencies of 9 to 11- year-old students in classroom settings. Groups solved questions from an American reading test intended for older students using the Internet as a supporting tool. The study concluded that students were better at answering reading questions in groups than individually and that children scored best in higher-grade tests than lower grade-level tests. However, authors reported limitations due to a small sample size.

Despite research efforts, SOLE has not been studied enough and with the needed rigor to position itself in the scientific arena. In an exchange about Mitra’s research

publications, Arora (2010) described the lack of information in regards to methodology and procedures that could help solidify Mitra’s findings, in addition to lack of scientific rigor and feasibility of scaling up computer kiosks around the world. Then, Mitra answered (Arora and Mitra, 2010) Arora’s questions in regard to the romanticise idea of freeing students from the restrictions of schools by placing outdoor computer kiosks,

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the need for teachers versus mediators, and remarks about vandalised computer kiosks. Similarly, Warschauer (2004) who visited some of Mitra’s computer kiosks, exposed how these were poorly equipped with academic information and therefore students -as reported by families- dedicated most of the time to play games and drawing.

Additionally, this author reports a lack of community involvement in the project, which made it difficult for villagers to understand the kiosks. This and other claims caused bloggers to criticize Mitra’s work from idealistic claims such as the replacement of teachers by mediators, Google as a tool to achieve formal educational standards (e.g. using Google to become a medical doctor), and using SOLE as a panacea for second language acquisition, among others (Clark, 2013; Harmer, 2014).

Unfortunately, there is no evidence in the writings of these critics, any formal or informal attempt to practice and/or study SOLE. The only study of this kind was found in the investigation by Rix and McElwee (2016) who made use of a SOLE lab in

England to research if students in secondary school who had scored the lowest in a state test were able to learn geography content through the SOLE approach. This action research showed that at first students were able to navigate pages in the Internet, however, after three SOLE sessions, students’ progress towards solving the question was diminished. Authors speculated that this was due to students reading difficulties and therefore unwillingness to read lengthy Internet texts that could have led them to the answer. In response, peer-mediators of older age but without knowledge of specific geography content were introduced to SOLE sessions. This scaffold resulted in higher levels of comprehension and solving the question. Although this study brings light into how comprehension can be hindered by poor reading skills, the big question used in this study could have been too abstract for the age of the students, which is yet to be study in SOLE.

Investigations in SOLE are scarce, especially those addressing Internet comprehension, indicating a research gap. More studies are needed to determine if groups of children are able to self-organise to read complex text better than reading individually and to explain the mechanisms facilitating comprehension under these conditions.

2.5.1 Self-Organised Learning Environment and Complexity Theory

In the process of identifying a new approach to education that included the effective use of computers, in the early 2000s Prof Mitra open computer kiosks in multiple places in

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India and this was known as “The Hole in the Wall” experiment (Mitra, 2015). This experiment evolved to what Mitra called the SOLE approach. Prof Mitra -a physicist by trade- noticed the resemblance between how children behave in SOLE and what storm systems and birds do when they self-organise.

Mitra (2014b; 2015) stated that in SOLE children self-organise and what emerges is learning, which Sumara and Davis (2006) classified as one of the properties of a complex system. In SOLE, once the question (i.e. source of perturbance) (Morrison, 2006; Morrison, 2008) is present, the system (i.e. groups connected to the Internet) begins to adapt to the environment in the quest for answers. Unaided by adults (i.e. lack of external control), participants seek an answer by researching the Internet, walking around to other groups in the room to transport ideas and knowledge from group to group (i.e. strengthen the connections in the system) (Siemens, 2005), and finally arriving to one or more possible answers. The new order that emerges from self- organisation is learning, that reveals itself as students present the findings to the question.

SOLE has not yet been described as a complex system where its connected parts self- organise. This thesis work will attempt to show how groups of children working in SOLE situations can form complex systems of interactions for Internet comprehension enterprises. It is one of the purpose of this thesis to expand the understanding of SOLE as a complex system of interconnected parts.

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Chapter 3. Methodology