Summary
Pupils’ activity within self-organized learning environments and its effects on learning success
The individual activity of learners is a central element of self-organized learning in the form of project-orientated processes of complex problem-solving in small groups. In learning environments open to self-organized learning, goal definition, problem-solving and activity control should be largely determined by the learner. In the process of solving problems, pupils are required to externalize their own knowledge and to assist in the construction of common terms and models of understanding. It is assumed that activities directly related to the learning context will lead to a higher level of success for the pupils involved. In the research project on which this contribution is based, particular attention was paid to learners’ activity during the pupil-centered work phases. Three alternative category schemes (problem-solving process, utilization of technical terms, pupils’ questions) were used to analyze the individual activity within the study sample (two work groups of nine from a total of 22 participants from one vocational school class). As expected, a non-random relation between pupils’ activity and their learning success (problem-solving ability) was found. The learners were able to make use of the freedom afforded to them by a self-organized learning environment in a responsible way.