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The Zones of Proximal and Distal Development in Chinese Language studies with the use of wikis

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posted on 2022-03-18, 15:09 authored by Esyin Chew, Seong Lin Ding
Educational practitioners in the higher education institutions of the UK have increasingly promoted the use of wikis. The technology enhanced learning experience of the UK was transferred to a local higher educational agency in Malaysia through a collaborative research project called WiLearn. By examining a student cohort enrolled in Chinese language studies, WiLearn explores the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and the Zone of Distal Development (ZDD) with regard to the use of wikis in peer reviewed group coursework. With the goal of informing higher education researchers and practitioners, the problematic use of wikis was discussed according to the following three dimensions: (a) the process of group work; (b) social presence; and (c) the outcome of group work. The findings reveal that more critical reflection is evident when retrieving peers’ comments through WiLearn, but less critical discourse is evident among the participants. The difference between the ZPD and the ZDD lies not in the functional use of wikis but in the degree of openness and social presence of the students from Chinese language studies. A pedagogical change in critical peer review and discourse regarding the use of wikis is suggested. This paper concludes with constructive and disruptive lessons that were learned through a series of insights that provide a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities with regard to learning and teaching with wikis for Chinese language studies.

History

Published in

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

Publisher

ASCILITE

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Citation

Chew, E. and Ding, S. (2014) 'The Zones of Proximal and Distal Development in Chinese Language studies with the use of wikis', Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 30(2)

Print ISSN

0814-673X

Cardiff Met Affiliation

  • Cardiff School of Technologies

Cardiff Met Authors

Esyin Chew

Copyright Holder

  • © The Authors

Language

  • en

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