Powerful Learning Environments: Unravelling Basic Components and Dimensions

by Erik de Corte, L. Verschaffel, N. Entwistle

Over the past ten to fifteen years the international scene of research on learning and instruction has witnessed the emergence of important and promising developments. New theoretical frameworks, design principles, and research methodologies focusing on the construction, implementation, and evaluation of powerful learning environments have been put forward, coming from three intersecting subdomains within the broader field of research on learning and instruction - namely instructional psychology, instructional technology, and instructional design. Although it is obvious that the developments in those three subdomains are characterized by similarities and convergencies, there are still important differences. Therefore, there is a great need for scientific debate and attempts to integrate, or justify, the contrasting theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and empirical outcomes. A European research network, coordinated by the Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology of the University of Leuven, has been set up to work towards this end. The present volume is the first collective output of this European research network, and focuses on unravelling and identifying basic component and dimensions of powerful learning environments. It is based on the presentations and discussions that constituted the "piece de resistance" of a first meeting of the research network.

260 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Erik de Corte is professor emeritus of educational psychology and former director (and co-founder) of the Center for Instructional Psychology and Technology (CIP&T) at the University of Leuven, Belgium, where he received his PhD in educational sciences in 1970. De Corte was the founder and first President (1985-1989) of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), President of the International Academy of Education (1998-2006), and the chair of the HERCulES (Higher Education, Research and Culture in European Society) Expert Group of the Academia Europaea (2009-2017) which assists the Council in developing and managing activities and initiatives of the Academy. De Corte's research centers on learning, teaching and assessment of thinking and problem solving, and the analysis of self-regulation skills, beliefs and emotions, especially in mathematics. At the 7th EARLI Conference in 1997 De Corte was presented with the Oeuvre Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Learning and Instruction" of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, and at the 25th International Congress of Applied Psychology in 2002 with the Award for Outstanding Career Contribution to Educational Psychology. Respectively in 2000 and 2003 he received the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein in South Africa. In 2005-2006 he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. In 2012 he was elected as member of the Russian Academy of Pedagogical and Social Sciences.