Web 2.0 provides resources and tools that make the learning process social and collaborative as they connect students with each other and help to move from the instructor-centred methods of teaching to more contextual learning and problem-solving techniques (J.West and M.West, 2009). The aim of the paper is to introduce findings on the project of implementing Web 2.0 resources for collaborative work in the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The main objectives of the project were to 1) single out Internet resources aimed at collaboration to suit the purposes of educational programme; 2) determine how much collaborative learning background students have and their attitudes to online and face-to-face collaboration; 3) analyse the students’ involvement in collaborative learning activities; 4) research the influence of web-related technologies on willingness to collaborate. The main methods used in the research were questionnaire, interview and observation as well as analyses of students’ work. The results revealed a positive attitude to Web 2.0 among the majority of the students. The offered Internet resources (Tricider.com, MeetingWords.com, TodaysMeet.com) improved communication and collaboration outside of the classroom, which is vital as increasingly less time is being allocated for studying a  foreign language. Besides, Web 2.0 resources make it easier for teachers to evaluate each student’s contribution to task achievement and ensure fair assessment of each student’s work.

This study aimed to explore a collaborative problem solving case using social media and an e-collaboration tool, and analyze its educational implications in a qualitative research method. For achieving the research goal, a case study was conducted in a middle school class. Two rounds of one-to-one interviews with a teacher and written interviews with students were conducted. In addition, relevant class resources and the students’ final reports were also collected as data. It was shown that using social media and an e-collaboration tool could encourage students’ scientific inquiries and enhance problem solving skills as well as set up a healthy communication culture among teachers and students.

Relationship – education – understanding: building virtual learning communities not only in the times of pandemic

The aim of the article is to analyze the process of education carried out in the conditions of online teaching. The author pays special attention to organizing the learning community. Learning is understood as the process of creating knowledge, where interaction and cooperation of students play an important role. The narrative is an extension of the thesis that in the case of distance learning there is a need to build a community of learners, where equally high importance is given to both cognitive and emotional effects. An important role of the teacher is to care for the mutual relations of students in virtual educational networks. The learning process carried out in a properly organized virtual network of students’ cooperation leads from mutual communication to understanding the content and creating knowledge, and learning becomes a very active mental process. The article discusses selected concepts of learning based on the cooperation of learners, the characteristics of which are translated into the model of collaborative learning in a virtual space, using the tools of modern digital technologies. The article indicates the importance of social relations in students’ virtual communities and the advantages of students’ educational activities in the digital space.

The presented study examines the relationship between high school students’ mathematics anxiety and learning styles. Subjects were 441 eleventh grade students enrolled in six different high schools. The data were obtained primarily from two scales, namely “Mathematics Anxiety Scale” and “Learning Style Inventory”. Quantitative research approach was used in analyzing and collecting the data. Results revealed a significantly positive relation between mathematics anxiety and an avoidant learning style. In addition, there was a significant negative correlation between anxiety and collaborative learning. Results also revealed that avoidant learning style was the strongest predictor of mathematics anxiety