An increase in online and hybrid education during and after the Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated the infiltration of digital media into mainstream university teaching. Global challenges, such as ecological crises, call for further radical changes in university teaching, requiring an even richer convergence of ‘natural,’ ‘human’ and ‘digital’. In this paper, we argue that this convergence demands us to go beyond ‘the great online transition’ and reframe how we think about university, teachers’ roles and their competencies to use digital technologies. We focus on what it takes to be a teacher in a sustainable university and consider emerging trends at three levels of the educational ecosystem—global developments (macro), teachers’ local practices (meso), and daily activities (micro). Through discussion of examples of ecopedagogies and pedagogies of care and self-care, we argue that teaching requires a fluency to embrace different ways of knowing and collective awareness of how the digital is entwined with human practices within and across different levels of the educational ecosystem. For this, there is a need to move beyond person-centric theorisations of teacher digital competencies towards more holistic, ecological conceptualisations. It also requires going beyond functionalist views of teachers’ roles towards enabling their agentive engagement with a future-oriented, sustainable university mission.
This research investigates rural area students’ online adoption during the fourth wave of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The main objective of this study was to identify the factors affecting the adoption of online education in rural areas in Sri Lanka. This case study was carried out based on data gathered from the online survey during the pandemic covering 16 districts in Sri Lanka. Using the ordered probit regression model through the stepwise technique, the study investigates the factors affecting the adoption of online education in rural areas in Sri Lanka. According to the results generated, attitude, perceived use, awareness, and new technology adoption have a positive impact on student adoption of online education in Sri Lanka. Online education so far is one of the effective and feasible solutions for providing education in a pandemic situation in any country. These findings are helpful for responsible educational institutions to address and contribute to key issues such as low perceived use, poor attitude, low awareness, and poor technology adoption. The study will also assist policymakers in preparing a roadmap, at the policy level with the perceived benefits of online education during similar future crises in Sri Lanka.
This study investigated the relationships between self-efficacy, self-regulation, and teaching presence, cognitive presence, and learning engagement during the pandemic. A total of 1435 undergraduate students in Korea completed an online survey on their learning experiences during COVID-19. The findings indicate that self-efficacy had a positive relationship with teaching presence and cognitive presence as well as self-regulation. No direct relationship between self-efficacy on learning engagement was found; however, the relationship between self-efficacy and learning engagement was fully mediated by self-regulation, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Self-regulation had a positive relationship with both cognitive presence and learning engagement. Teaching presence had a positive impact on cognitive presence, but not on learning engagement. However, cognitive presence fully mediated the relationship between teaching presence and learning engagement. In effect, this study lends support to the significance of the role of cognitive presence in online learning.
Adopting a pretest–posttest experimental design with repeated measures, this study examined the effects of three types of game-based learning supports in the form of modeling on knowledge development that contributed to successful math problem solving and students’ perceived game flow. Forty-one sixth-grade students participated in the study and played a 3D architecture game that aims to promote mathematical conceptual understanding and problem solving skills, and presented with different types of learning supports (i.e., conceptual knowledge only, procedural knowledge only, and the combination of the two). No significant effect of the types of supports was found on participants’ perceived game flow. However, there was a significant impact of support type on participants’ performance on two posttests. The results indicated that the learning support with procedural knowledge only, compared with the learning support with both conceptual and procedural knowledge as well as that with conceptual knowledge only, was significantly more effective in promoting students’ knowledge acquisition related to mathematical problem solving.
Preparing students for professional life in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous twenty-first century world has seen tertiary institutions eschew the traditional ‘lecture-tutorial’ model in favour of active learning approaches. However, implementing these approaches is not unproblematic. This paper explores how we navigated the tensions of cultivating twenty-first century skills in our students—first-year preservice teachers—through a purposely designed approach to active learning in an educational technology course. We illustrate how deploying Bakhtinian precepts through reflexive inquiry supported sensemaking of discomfort, leveraging this sensemaking to reinvigorate practice.
The purpose of this study was to develop and measure the usability of the software prototype of formative assessment in the LMS. This study was applied in terms of research objective and mixed method (qualitative–quantitative) in terms of data collection in which an exploratory sequential mixed methods design was used. In addition, in order to collect data in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions were held, while in the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire was employed. The content analysis coding method was used to analyze the data obtained from interviews. The findings of the qualitative phase of the research revealed that there are a total of 12 main needs and solutions to improve the LMS in the field of formative assessment. Moreover, based on these needs and solutions, five main processes of Dynamic Dashboard, Mirror, Treasure, Real Me, and Step-by-Step to the Goal were designed for the prototype of formative assessment software. Furthermore, one-sample t-test was used to analyze the data collected in the quantitative phase of the research. Findings showed that the developed software enjoys the necessary usability.
This study investigated the effectiveness of ABRACADABRA (ABRA), a web-based literacy program, developed by the Center for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University, in facilitating the literacy attainment of third-grade primary school students in an area of rural China. Researchers shared the experiences of localizing ABRA to make it more readily accepted by the regional teachers. Ten schools (five experimental, five control) with 339 students participated in a one-year-long matched control study; participants in both groups took pre- and post-intervention tests. The treatment group outperformed the controls on all six key reading outcomes: Phonological Awareness (ES = +0.64), Phonemic Awareness (ES = +0. 57), Early Literacy Skills (ES = +0.70), Initial Letter Sound Fluency (ES = +0.38), Segmenting (ES = +0.81), and Non-word Reading (ES = +0.92). These outcomes suggest ABRA is effective in a context where English is used as a foreign language, and the learning resources are limited. ABRA is useful in facilitating the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) into the course syllabus.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) camp program on rural students’ self-efficacy and computational thinking skills. One hundred fifty-three third- and fourth-grade elementary school students from three different rural schools in China were recruited to participate. All participants took part in the camp program for three consecutive days. A single group pre- and post-test design was used, and the study employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis to examine elementary school students’ self-efficacy and computational thinking skills in the context of STEM activities. The findings revealed that the robotics STEM camp program significantly affected the self-efficacy and computational thinking of students in rural elementary schools. In addition, students’ experience with engineering-based activities had a statistically significant impact on computational thinking skills, and programming experience affected self-efficacy with regard to participation in STEM activities. There were gender differences in student satisfaction with the subject of the robotics STEM camp program. Finally, this study makes relevant suggestions for the future development of STEM camp activities and course design.
The emergence of advanced information technology has revolutionized education and accentuated the demand for high-quality learning. However, many teachers fall short of using technology effectively and optimizing instructional design to promote deeper learning. To address this issue, this study proposes a four-element flipped learning model, which employs the Rain Classroom platform to facilitate a deeper learning environment for the development of students’ deeper learning competencies. A total of 102 college students enrolled in the Introductory Educational Technology course participated in this study. Over 16 weeks, the experimental group students (n = 52) were exposed to the flipped learning approach for deeper learning while the control group students (n = 50) studied under the traditional teaching model. At the end of the course, the effects of the flipped classroom on deeper learning were examined. The results revealed that the flipped classroom students exhibited higher levels of deeper learning (d = .64) and perceived deeper learning competencies (d = .50–0.62) than their traditional classroom counterparts. In addition, the four elements were found to be predictive of students’ deeper learning competencies in the cognitive (R2 = .63), interpersonal (R2 = .51), and intrapersonal (R2 = .58) domains. Implications and recommendations for promoting college students’ deeper learning are provided.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different types of cues and self-explanation prompts in instructional videos on intrinsic motivation, learning engagement, learning outcomes, and cognitive load, which were indicators to measure deep learning performance. Seventy-two college students were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions in a 3 × 2 factorial design with cues (visual vs. textual vs. combined textual-&-visual) and self-explanation prompts (prediction vs. reflection) as the between-subjects factors. To measure participants’ learning engagement, Neurosky mindwave mobile and Tobii pro X3-120 eye-tracker were used to collect their brain wave data and eye movement data, respectively. Learning outcomes were measured with retention and transfer tests, and questionnaires were used to measure participants’ intrinsic motivation and cognitive load, respectively. The results revealed that the textual cues significantly facilitated learning outcomes and learning engagement—attention–while the reflection prompts significantly affected learning engagement—the mean fixation duration—and cognitive load. Notably, the combination of textual cues and reflection prompts and the combination of visual cues and prediction prompts allowed the participants to focus and engage in the video learning process more deeply, resulting in a significantly higher learning outcome than their peers from other conditions. This research could provide some implications for designing short instructional videos to facilitate deep learning.
Most conventional information literacy classes apply direct instruction where students focus on memorizing target knowledge. As this approach promotes little active learning, while digital storytelling could effectively involve students, we proposed a digital storytelling approach to enhancing students’ information literacy development in this study. In this research, we applied student-centered digital storytelling to enhance learners’ development of information literacy. As the literature indicates that appropriate scaffolding is essential for effective digital storytelling, and learners need guidance on how to produce digital stories with in-depth content to achieve satisfactory learning outcomes, we integrated peer assessment (PA) into digital storytelling to guide learners to reflect on and critique their videos based on assessment rubrics and peer feedback, and then further improve their videos. We also conducted a quasi-experiment with two groups of elementary students to test the effectiveness of this strategy. The target knowledge was copyright and public license issues. The experimental group learned the content through the PA-enhanced digital storytelling approach, and the control group through the teacher feedback-enhanced approach. The results showed that the PA-enhanced approach to digital storytelling significantly outperformed the teacher feedback-enhanced approach in promoting students’ learning of information literacy, self-efficacy, and critical thinking abilities; on the other hand, no significant differences existed between the two groups in terms of their learning motivation.
Echoing the increasing emphasis on STEM literacy, computational thinking has become a national priority in K-12 schools. Scholars have acknowledged abstraction as the keystone of computational thinking. To foster K-12 students’ computational thinking and STEM literacy, students’ ability to think abstractly should be enhanced. However, the existing curriculum in K-12 education may not adequately equip learners with the proper abstraction needed for the STEM workforce. Given the absence of a synthesized understanding of abstraction, effective instructional guidance for fostering student abstraction is also elusive. To overcome the gap in understanding abstraction, we attempted to conceptualize a synthesized framework of abstraction in computational thinking and proposed a set of design guidelines that may enhance students’ uptake of abstraction. In this paper, we describe the importance of abstraction in computational thinking and existing challenges in developing students’ ability to perform abstraction. Then, by reviewing the cognitive dimensions of abstraction and the role of abstraction in computing education, we identify three cognitive processes underlying abstraction in computational thinking (e.g., filtering information, locating similarities, and mapping problem structures). We thereby propose a conceptual framework of abstraction in computational thinking. Finally, design guidelines for fostering abstraction in computational thinking are provided with illustrated examples of a tailored STEM-integrative learning environment.
Principles derived from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML; Mayer in: Multimedia learning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021) provide valuable guidance for enlisting commonly-available technologies to create effective online multimedia lessons. Specifically, CTML can guide instructional designers on the use of slide-sharing programs to create concise, narrated animation segments; the use of survey programs to interpolate questions and prompts between these segments to facilitate generative learning activities; and the use of video-sharing sites to provide learners with control over relatively superficial aspects of instruction. The application of CTML to the design of online multimedia lessons raises a number of theoretical and practical questions, including the need to better understand the relationship between working memory capacity and working memory duration, the importance of retrieval as a learning process, and the relative impact of selection and organization processes on learning.
This study investigated the impact of designing an online learning environment based on cognitive apprenticeship on students’ critical thinking and interaction in CSCL. The one group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used in this study. A questionnaire was used to measure students’ critical thinking and social network analysis (SNA) was used to analyse students’ interaction. The study found that students’ critical thinking improved after engaging in an online learning environment based on cognitive apprenticeship. SNA showed that students’ network size and inter- and intragroup interaction increased during the engagement in the online environment designed by incorporating cognitive apprenticeship. This study provides recommendations for designing an online learning environment and more specifically, stimulating students’ critical thinking and engaging students in CSCL.
The education pathways and opportunities of schoolgirls in Asia are facing different challenges. The empirical studies have implemented Information and Communication Technology-enabled learning to expand such pathways and opportunities and promote education inclusiveness and equity. Through the Gender Analysis Framework, this review paper focuses on exploring and discussing how ICT-enabled learning may expand schoolgirls’ education pathways and opportunities in Asia for inclusive and equitable education. This review covers 30 studies that adopted ICT-enabled learning, synthesizes, and presents four key ICT-enabled learning approaches: Emerging technologies-enabled learning, Digital game-based learning, Mobile-enabled learning, and Computer-assisted learning. Our result discusses about how different approaches in this review (in)directly impact on schoolgirls’ access to assets, their practice and participation in learning activities, belief and perception of their own and other stakeholders’, and how policies accommodate these approaches. The review further suggests several guidelines to develop an inclusive learning environment enabled by ICT to education pathways and opportunities of schoolgirls, thereby enhancing education inclusiveness and equity.
For decades, AI applications in education (AIEd) have shown how AI can contribute to education. However, a challenge remains: how AIEd, guided by educational knowledge, can be made to meet specific needs in education, specifically in supporting learners’ autonomous learning. To address this challenge, we demonstrate the process of developing an AI-applied system that can assist learners in studying autonomously. Guided by a Learner-Generated Context (LGC) framework and development research methodology (Richey and Klein in J Comput High Educ 16(2):23–38, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02961473, 2005), we define a form of learning called “LGC-based learning,” setting specific study objectives in the design, development, and testing of an AI-based system that can facilitate Korean students’ LGC-based English language learning experience. The new system is developed based on three design principles derived from the literature review. We then recruit three Korean secondary-school students with different educational backgrounds and illustrate and analyze their English learning experiences using the system. Following this analysis, we discuss how the AI-based system facilitates LGC-based learning and further issues to be considered for future research.
Digitally enhanced teaching does not imply neglecting appropriate teaching strategies and approaches. There are assertions that negative learning outcomes obtained in blended learning could be a result of neglecting the use of an appropriate lesson planning framework, teaching strategies and approaches. Already, there are calls for the use of more responsive lesson planning frameworks against the traditional frameworks. While there are suppositions that responsive frameworks produce significant improvement in the language skills of learners, there is less empirical evidence to show this. To bridge these gaps in scientific literature, this study decides to investigate the effectiveness of integrating technology with different lesson design frameworks. The study utilized a mixed-method design with an experimental approach. The findings of the study show that although the blend of technology and CAPE framework was effective in improving some language skills, the reading skills of the participants remained unchanged. Notably, the study provides useful empirical evidence showing the usefulness of incorporating technology and effective teaching frameworks in producing positive learning outcomes in a digitally enhanced learning environment.
This article aims to analyze the experiences of teachers on the uses of ICTs in the development of teaching practices within the framework of a new learning ecology. We use the SAMR model to scale the levels of ICTs contributions in each practice. 116 teachers from a public educational institution in Brazil answered a questionnaire during the pandemic scenario, while conducting emergency remote teaching. Teachers declared to develop the teaching practices with the integration of ICTs at the levels of Augmentation and Modification by correspondence to the SAMR model. Based on the analyzes carried out, we propose some reflections that help to rethink this model and to understand the second-order barriers that prevent the effective integration of ICT in teachers’ practices.
The complexities of including students with autism in schools throughout Australia has resulted in the increased necessity for collaboration between stakeholders. For included students with autism, secondary school presents a variety of subjects, teachers and peers that have the potential to increase anxiety levels compared to their primary experience. Communication between important stakeholders is critical in alleviating issues for students with autism before they escalate. In this paper, researchers report and reflect on the implementation of a co-design process as a rigorous practice-based research methodology that provided an empathy focussed platform to explore possibilities in designing a prototype digital solution to support students with autism. The project was designed to identify communication issues associated with the secondary experience of students with autism and to create solutions via the development of a rapid prototype communication app. Findings from this project suggest that involving diverse stakeholders in co-designing and exploring possibilities in complex school environments had two benefits: stakeholders had the opportunity to see the challenge from other parties’ perspectives, and the process promoted creativity and flexibility in generating people-based solutions.
Hypothesis-based reasoning with conditionals is a skill that is required for engaging in integral activities of modern elementary school science-curricula. The teaching of this skill at this early stage of education, however, is demanding, particularly in whole school classes in which it is difficult to adapt teaching to children’s individual needs. We examine whether a scaffold that is static yet tailored to the context, in which the teacher explicitly models the reasoning process, manages to meet students’ individual cognitive preconditions for learning this skill. Within an inquiry-based learning setting, N = 143 third-graders underwent either an experimental condition in which they received the explicit scaffold, or a control condition in which they did not receive this specific scaffold. Employing a latent transition analysis and a general additive model, it is examined how the additional scaffold interacted with students’ prior knowledge, inhibition ability, and logical reasoning judged by their own teachers. It is found that the additional scaffolds managed to meet the needs of students with little prior knowledge; under the control condition, students with little prior knowledge showed decreased learning achievement, whereas under the experimental condition, students with differing prior knowledge learned to comparable extent and on a higher level. The scaffolds also almost fully diminished a disadvantage for students with lower teacher-judged logical reasoning, and supported students with high inhibition ability in mastering the most difficult aspect of reasoning based on irrelevant evidence. Implications for science education are discussed.
Educating young learners to reason with data is increasingly important given our data-saturated society; yet teachers need support in recognizing and facilitating apt epistemic performance (which involves the beliefs and practices necessary to successfully establish, critique, and use data and knowledge within a domain) regarding data literacy with elementary students. In this exploratory study, we aimed to understand (a) what apt epistemic processes within data literacy look like in practice with children, and (b) to what extent a curriculum built on a simulation-based data analysis intervention (where students engage in experimentation and data analyses through the use of simulations) promotes the epistemic processes of data literacy. We used the Apt-AIR framework, which expounds on the components needed for successful epistemic education, as a tool to identify students’ apt epistemic processes. The results illustrate that elementary students were able to activate cognitive, emotional, and—to a lesser extent—metacognitive and collaborative epistemic processes related to data literacy skills in this context. Additionally, the design features embedded in the experimentation lesson were more successful in engaging students in apt epistemic processes; yet the data analysis lesson, while engaging students in fewer processes overall, was successful in promoting students’ ability to make accurate inferences using an aggregate view of data. We discuss the trends in the apt epistemic processes related to data literacy that emerged and their implications for instruction and learning.
Peer ideas can be valuable contributions to scientific inquiry. Divergent peer ideas can enrich students' thinking and encourage curiosity. Meanwhile, similar peer ideas can promote convergent thinking that can reinforce understanding. However, students need guidance in critically evaluating peer ideas in relation to their own, and in recognizing the influence of peers’ ideas. Guided by the Knowledge Integration framework, we explore whether students’ perceptions of the impact of peers’ ideas align with the revisions made to their written explanations. In a technology-rich, classroom-based inquiry unit on cancer cell division, Grade 7 students (N = 144) investigated the effects of different cancer treatments on cell division, and developed explanations for a recommended treatment. We prompted one group of students to visit a class repository to seek peer ideas similar to their own, and another to seek ideas different from their own. Both groups then revised their recommendations. Based on analyses of students' reflections, initial and revised explanations, and pre and posttests, we found that students prompted to seek divergent ideas perceived peers’ ideas to be more impactful, even though both groups of students revised at the same rate and made similar pre to posttest gains. This study suggests a need to attend to students’ perceptions of the roles of their peers, particularly in environments designed to reflect authentic processes of the social construction of scientific knowledge.
This study examined students’ ability to select relevant ideas from multiple online texts and integrate those ideas in their written products. Students (N = 162) used a web-based platform to complete an online inquiry task in which they read three texts presenting different perspectives on computer gaming and wrote an article for a school magazine on the issue based on these texts. Students selected two snippets from each text during reading and wrote their article with the selected snippets available. The selected snippets were scored according to their relevance for completing the task, and the written products were scored according to their integration quality. The results showed that most students performed well on the selection task. However, nearly half of the written products were characterized by poor integration quality. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that students’ selection of relevant ideas from the texts contributed to their integration of information across texts over and above both reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. The study provides new evidence on the relationship between selection and integration when younger students work with multiple texts, and both theoretical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.
In order to design learning environments that foster students’ research skills, one can draw on instructional design models for complex learning, such as the 4C/ID model (in: van Merriënboer and Kirschner, Ten steps to complex learning, Routledge, London, 2018). However, few attempts have been undertaken to foster students’ motivation towards learning complex skills in environments based on the 4C/ID model. This study explores the effects of providing autonomy, competence and relatedness support (in Deci and Ryan, Psychol Inquiry 11(4): 227–268, https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01, 2000) in a 4C/ID based online learning environment on upper secondary school behavioral sciences students’ cognitive and motivational outcomes. Students’ cognitive outcomes are measured by means of a research skills test consisting of short multiple choice and short answer items (in order to assess research skills in a broad way), and a research skills task in which students are asked to integrate their skills in writing a research proposal (in order to assess research skills in an integrative manner). Students’ motivational outcomes are measured by means of students’ autonomous and controlled motivation, and students’ amotivation. A pretest-intervention-posttest design was set up in order to compare 233 upper secondary school behavioral sciences students’ outcomes among (1) a 4C/ID based online learning environment condition, and (2) an identical condition additively providing support for students’ need satisfaction. Both learning environments proved equally effective in improving students’ scores on the research skills test. Students in the need supportive condition scored higher on the research skills task compared to their peers in the baseline condition. Students’ autonomous and controlled motivation were not affected by the intervention. Although, unexpectedly, students’ amotivation increased in both conditions, students’ amotivation was lower in the need supportive condition compared to students in the baseline condition. Theoretical relationships were established between students’ need satisfaction, students’ motivation (autonomous, controlled, and amotivation), and students’ cognitive outcomes. These findings are discussed taking into account the COVID-19 affected setting in which the study took place.
Sourcing - identifying, evaluating, and using information about the sources of information - assists readers in determining what to trust when seeking information on the Internet. To survive in the post-truth era, students should be equipped with sufficient sourcing skills. This study investigated the efficacy of a teacher-led intervention aimed at fostering upper secondary school students’ (N = 365) sourcing during online inquiry. The intervention (4 × 75 min) was structured in accordance with the phases of online inquiry: locating, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating information. During the intervention, teachers demonstrated why and how to source, and students practiced sourcing by investigating a controversial topic on the Internet. Students worked in small groups and their work was supported with analysis and reflection prompts. Students’ sourcing skills were measured with a web-based online inquiry task before and after the intervention. Compared to controls, the intervention fostered students’ abilities in three of the four skills measured (sourcing in search queries, credibility judgments, and written product). Depending on the sourcing skill, 4–25% of students showed improved performance. The students with low sourcing skills to begin with, benefited the most from the intervention. The study demonstrated that students’ sourcing skills can be supported throughout online inquiry.
Research suggests that explanatory pictures support learning, whereas pictures that distract processing resources from the main ideas of a text may impair learning and are considered as seductive illustrations. However, non-explanatory pictures that are related to the text and that do not tempt readers to focus illustrations more than the text’s main ideas might improve learning through spreading activation processes during learning. This effect might be reflected in memory measures or in metacognitive measures. Therefore, in two experiments, we tested related decorative pictures for positive effects on knowledge and transfer performance and metacognitive monitoring. Results indicate positive effects of related pictures on knowledge acquisition (Experiment 1) and metacognitive monitoring (Experiment 2). In neither experiment, related pictures enhanced transfer performance or interest (measured as triggered and maintained situational interest). This pattern of results can be explained by automatic mutual facilitation of related materials based on spreading activation processes.
We present the analysis of an episode of mathematical problem solving in a group, where data came from multiple advanced recorders, including multiple video cameras, Smartpen recorders, and mobile eye tracking glasses. Analysis focused on a particular group that was ineffective in their problem-solving process. Relying on the commognitive theory of learning on the one hand, and on quantitative descriptors of eye-tracking data on the other hand, we ask how do the interpretations of the discourse analysis and gaze data complement each other in understanding the obstacles to problem-solving in this episode. The setting included four Finnish 9th grade students solving a geometrical problem in the students’ authentic mathematics classroom. The commognitive analysis revealed intensive social communication (subjectifying) along with the mathematical one (mathematizing), which seemed to interfere with the problem-solving process. Specifically, it masked the differences in students’ interpretation of the tasks, and did not allow explication of meta-rules according to which students endorsed mathematical claims. Diagrams of quantified gaze data enabled a more macro-level picture of the full 15 min interaction, revealing differential loci of attention of the group members and thus triangulating the micro-analysis.
We adopted a person-oriented approach to identify patterns of how classroom talk and internal behavioral engagement are combined in students.
The research was conducted on a sample of 639 ninth-grade students (32 classes). We measured the duration of classroom talk for each individual student during Czech language and language arts lessons. The students completed an inventory to determine their internal behavioral engagement. Student achievement was measured using the results from standardized reading literacy tests. We also inquired about the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students.
We identified five distinct participation profiles (eager, chatty, diligent, aloof, and disconnected) and analyzed whether the profiles could predict student achievement. We found that the profile with high talk and high internal behavioral engagement performed best, and the profile with low talk and low internal behavioral engagement performed worst. Analyzing the inconsistent profiles, we found that high internal behavioral engagement did not guarantee student achievement if the engagement was not accompanied by talk. Our findings thus highlight the important role of classroom talk in relation to student learning.
In a typical citizen science scenario different groups of people take on various roles in a research process that is often coupled with educational, social or personal objectives. A widely accepted viewpoint asserts that such an endeavor should bring benefits to all involved parties and that no participating individuals should act in service of others or of the end goal. However, the large variety of implementation models, of participating individuals, and of desired impacts, leaves room for inconsistencies regarding what outcomes count towards mutual benefits. In this article we examine the ambiguity embedded in the definition of mutual benefits in citizen science and take a stand towards its resolution. We use school-based citizen science as a model for a multi-stakeholder, multi-objective citizen science. Focusing on teachers and scientists that work together to facilitate student participation in citizen science, nine teacher-scientist pairs that collaborated on nine different school-based projects were included as study participants. We examined participants’ motivations for school-based citizen science and perceived costs and benefits using a questionnaire that they filled while verbally explaining their answers. Our findings reveal multiple ways in which teachers and scientists tapped into their professional, social and personal identities to create multilayered sets of motivations and perceptions of benefits. Thus, we argue that a mutualistic perspective of citizen science should take this complexity into account and be prepared to answer multi-faceted expectations, which may reside not just among but also within participating individuals.
Understanding scientific phenomena requires learners to construct mental models of causal systems. Simulation-based discovery learning offers learners the opportunity to construct mental models and test them against the behavior of a simulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate sequential patterns of learner actions and utterances associated with outcomes of simulation-based guided discovery learning. We conducted a sequence analysis of data gathered from 11 undergraduate students engaged in discovery learning. Three related methods were used for the sequence analysis: Levenshtein edit distance, k-means clustering of the Levenshtein distance, and the Kohonen generalized median sequence. The median sequences of high-gaining and low-gaining participants showed qualitative differences in how they gathered evidence, stated claims, and drew explanatory inferences. Differences between the sequences of actions and utterances of high-gaining and low-gaining participants suggested ways that students might be guided to enhance discovery learning. By tracking the learning patterns of learners, researchers can determine the conditions under which prompts should be provided and offer recommendations for transforming less effective learning strategies to more effective ones.
Prior research has shown negative relations between math anxiety and math performance. We posit that one potential pathway through which math anxiety influences performance of math equivalencies is through help seeking behavior during learning. Here, we examine whether middle school students’ behavior, specifically the frequency of hint requests, within educational technologies mediates the association between math anxiety and performance of math equivalence. Students completed a pretest measuring their performance of math equivalence and math anxiety prior to the intervention, and a posttest measuring their performance of math equivalence. We examine mediation in two online math learning technologies: From Here to There (FH2T) and ASSISTments. In both FH2T and ASSISTments, students can request hints that provide just-in-time support during problem solving. We examined whether the frequency of hint requests mediates the effects of math anxiety on performance in both conditions. Using multi-group mediation analyses, we found that math anxiety was not a predictor of hint usage in either condition when controlling for pretest performance. Further, we found that students with lower performance at the pretest used more hints in the problem set condition, and using more hints was associated with lower performance of math equivalence at the posttest. This relation was not significant in the FH2T condition, suggesting a fundamental difference in hint usage between the two technologies. These findings have implications for designing educational technologies that simultaneously promote math performance and productive help seeking behaviors in middle school students.
Learner control of video presentations by using pause buttons or timeline scrollbars was suggested as helpful for learning from sources of transient information such as dynamic visualizations and spoken words. However, effective learner control could be difficult to attain without sufficient instructional support. This study developed strategies for facilitating processing and integration of transient information based on cognitive load theory by providing learners with explicit guidance in when and how to use pausing and timeline scrollbars while watching instructional videos. A single-factor between-subjects experiment was conducted to examine the effects of the proposed strategies. Ninety undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three groups - strategy guidance group (learners were provided with guidance in strategies), learner control group (learners were allowed to control the video but without any guidance in strategies), and continuous presentation group (without any learner control mechanism). The results revealed that compared to the learner control group, the strategy guidance group had a greater number of pauses and scrollbacks on the timeline, demonstrated significantly better performance in the immediate comprehension test and higher performance efficiency in the immediate recall and comprehension tests. Compared to the continuous presentation group, the strategy guidance group demonstrated significantly better performance in the immediate recall and comprehension tests and higher performance efficiency in both these tests, as well as better performance in the delayed recall test and higher performance efficiency in the delayed recall test.
Self-regulated learning (SRL) is essential for independent active learners. Despite its importance, supporting students' SRL is often challenging for teachers who lack the necessary knowledge and skills for in-class SRL practices. Hence, there is a need to support teachers' SRL: both as learners—how to self-regulate their own learning, and as teachers—how to use practices to support students' SRL. This study proposes an innovative instructional model empowered by “Authentic Interactive Dynamic Experiences” (“AIDE”) oriented to SRL and called the SRL–AIDE model. To examine the effectiveness of the model, we designed a professional development program based on the SRL–AIDE model, called the SRL–AIDE program. It involved explicit exposure to SRL theory, beliefs in independent learning as enhancing SRL, and immersive experiences including video-based learning and simulations with live actors to stimulate motivation for SRL classroom implementation. The model’s effectiveness was evaluated using authentic methods. Seventy-six teachers participated in either the SRL–AIDE program (experimental group) or a control program focused on effective learning principles. The results indicated a shift in beliefs toward independent learning as a core behavior in enhancing SRL, and a highly significant and systematic increase among the experimental group in the lesson plan, performance, and reflection (on the performed lesson) as phases in the teaching relating to the SRL cycle, including cognitive, metacognitive, and independent learning strategies. The improvements of the SRL practices were apparent in two measurement types: explicitness level and duration. Implications for class instruction, teachers’ professional development oriented toward students’ outcomes, and authentic evaluation are discussed.
Images, such as photographs and diagrams, play an important role in the teaching and learning of science. To optimize student learning, educational science images should be designed to facilitate the cognitive processes relevant to comprehension. One such process is comparison, which involves aligning multiple representations on the basis of their common relational structure. This structural alignment process can be facilitated by cognitive supports that are inherent to an image, including its spatial layout. Yet, little is known about the extent to which students must engage in comparison to learn from science images, and whether widely-used educational materials are conducive to structural alignment. To address these issues, we sampled multiple chapters from each of three popular U.S. middle school life science textbooks. We coded each image for the presence of prompts for comparison using cues within the images and surrounding text. For each image that prompted comparison, we coded whether its layout facilitated relevant structural alignment (direct placement of matched pairs) or obscured alignment (impeded placement). Overall, we found that comparisons were prompted for more than a third of the images. However, fewer than half of the images that required comparison had a spatial layout that provided strong support for comparison—that is, direct placement of matched objects/parts. We propose that, in concert with other cognitive supports for learning from multiple representations, spatial supports for comparison could be applied broadly to increase the effectiveness of educational science images.
This study reports a field experiment investigating how instructional videos with and without background music contribute to the learning of examination techniques within a formal curriculum of medical teaching. Following a classroom teaching unit on the techniques for examining the knee and the shoulder joint, our participants (N = 175) rehearsed the studied techniques for either the knee or the shoulder joint with an instructional video with or without background music. As dependent measures, we collected a general questionnaire, a prediction of test performance, as well as performance on an exam-like knowledge test covering both joints. For both videos, the participants who had watched the particular video during rehearsal were more accurate in answering the corresponding questions than the participants who had seen the other video, signaling that instructional videos provide a useful tool for rehearsal (i.e., both groups reciprocally served as control groups). For the knee video (less difficult), we observed a detrimental effect of the background music, whereas we observed no such effect for the shoulder video (more difficult). Further explorations revealed that background music might be detrimental for learning, as it reduces the perceived demand characteristics. Because the impact of the demand characteristics might be more pronounced in less difficult instructional videos, we discuss video difficulty as a potential moderating factor. Overall, our study provides evidence that instructional videos could be usefully implemented in formal teaching curricula and that such instructional videos probably should be designed without background music.
This paper explores orchestration support introduced to an online class to help students operate as a knowledge community. A technological design was introduced to provide a flexible, dynamic learning environment so that ideas and knowledge artifacts can flow across time, space, and people in the community. With support from a CSCL technology named FROG, we incorporated several general-purpose tools to support a variety of collaborative activities and relied on FROG as a backbone to connect these tools and orchestrate knowledge flows among them. Through a mixed-methods case study, we investigated the ways in which the design facilitated the flow of knowledge artifacts and idea development. Detailed analysis of a rich dataset revealed multiple ways in which ideas and artifacts flowed in the community, leading to growth in both individual learning and group projects. However, these phenomena varied across groups. This paper advances the community approach to learning by devising new technological and pedagogical supports. It also highlights the prospect of bringing guidance, control, and agency—long-standing issues of CSCL—into productive dialogues.
We face complex global issues such as climate change that challenge our ability as humans to manage them. Models have been used as a pivotal science and engineering tool to investigate, represent, explain, and predict phenomena or solve problems that involve multi-faceted systems across many fields. To fully explain complex phenomena or solve problems using models requires both systems thinking (ST) and computational thinking (CT). This study proposes a theoretical framework that uses modeling as a way to integrate ST and CT. We developed a framework to guide the complex process of developing curriculum, learning tools, support strategies, and assessments for engaging learners in ST and CT in the context of modeling. The framework includes essential aspects of ST and CT based on selected literature, and illustrates how each modeling practice draws upon aspects of both ST and CT to support explaining phenomena and solving problems. We use computational models to show how these ST and CT aspects are manifested in modeling.
Many college students believe that typing lecture notes on computers produces better notes and higher achievement than handwritten lecture notes on paper. The few studies investigating computer versus longhand note taking yielded mixed note-taking and achievement findings. The present study investigated computer versus longhand note taking but permitted note takers to revise or recopy notes during pauses interspersed throughout the lecture. Moreover, the present study analyzed notes recorded while a lecture was ongoing and following revision pauses to determine if lecture ideas and images were recorded completely or partially. Findings did not support the belief that computers aid note taking and achievement and, instead, favored longhand note taking and revision. Computer and longhand note takers recorded a comparable number of complete and partial ideas in notes while the lecture was ongoing, but longhand note takers recorded more lecture images. Among note revisers, longhand note takers added three-times-as-many complete ideas to their notes during revision as computer note takers—an important finding because note completeness predicted achievement. Achievement results showed that longhand note takers who revised notes scored more than half a letter grade higher on a lecture posttest than computer note takers who revised notes. Present findings suggest that college instructors should provide students with revision pauses to improve note taking and achievement and encourage students to record and revise notes using the longhand method. Finally, regarding the computer versus longhand note-taking debate, the need to investigate further the interplay between note-taking medium and lesson material is discussed.
This electroencephalography (EEG) study tested the benefits of generative learning and the underlying neural mechanism of these benefits when learning from video lectures. Twenty-six Chinese young adults independently viewed two video lectures in a repeated measures design. Each video lecture was broken into 40 segments, and after each segment, the participants either generated an oral sentence (generative learning condition) or viewed a sentence (passive viewing condition). Participants’ learning performance (accuracy and reaction time) were assessed after viewing each video, and their EEG oscillations (i.e., lower alpha band and upper alpha band in frontal and occipital-parietal regions) were recorded while watching each video and while generating a sentence or viewing a sentence. Paired t tests showed that students had higher learning performance (higher accuracy and shorter reaction time) after learning by using a generative learning strategy than learning by passive viewing. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that when learning by using a generative learning strategy, students exhibited increased frontal and occipital-parietal lower alpha and upper alpha power, both while watching the video lectures and generating/viewing a sentence. The two learning strategy conditions showed a larger difference in upper alpha power than in lower alpha power. Correlation analyses showed that students’ alpha power in the generative learning strategy condition was positively related to their reaction time. Based on the learning performance tests, generative learning is more effective than passive learning from video lectures; based on the EEG results, the effectiveness appears to be due to students being primed to apply a top-down processing strategy. The findings have an important practical implication: instructors can encourage students to engage in generative learning after viewing video lectures.
This study examined microteaching using computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) to assist student teachers in anticipating student voices and achieving authentic role-play. To achieve this, the design had two manipulatives: tangible puppets as “mediating manipulatives” that allow student teachers to elicit a variety of imaginary student voices in microteaching role-plays and three-dimensional animations as “perspective-taking manipulatives” that allow student teachers to dynamically switch viewpoints in reflection. This study aims to investigate how the combination of mediating and perspective-taking manipulatives helps student teachers foster the perspective-taking of imaginary students in their microteaching role-playing and reflection. We employed epistemic network analysis (ENA) to analyze discourse data collected both in the microteaching performances (including the tangible puppetry microteaching) and in the reflections. The results showed that the combination of the two manipulatives was effective for achieving the immediate transfer of imaginary students’ perspectives. Further qualitative analysis enabled by ENA indicated that the perspective-taking manipulatives were effective in bolstering perspective-taking due to the nonverbal aspects of students’ voices enacted in the role-play performances.
Knowledge Building is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes students’ collective responsibility to continuously improve their community knowledge. Advancing the frontiers of community knowledge is an exciting but challenging process, especially for low-achieving students, because it involves a continuous experience of cognitive disequilibrium and equilibrium. This knowledge generation process triggers various emotions (e.g., curiosity, surprise, and confusion) that may promote or hinder Knowledge Building. This study investigated the types and evolution of emotions experienced by academically low-achieving students in the Knowledge Building process supported by Knowledge Forum. The participants were 120 students from two Grade 9 classes and two Grade 11 classes in a Band 3 secondary school in Hong Kong. This school enrolls students performing at the 10th percentile on a pre-admission government examination at the end of elementary school. The participants built knowledge around Visual Arts. The emotions reflected in the digital Knowledge Forum notes and the evolution patterns of emotions in inquiry threads were both analyzed using content analysis and sequential pattern analysis. The participants demonstrated a high percentage of joy and relatively low percentages of frustration and boredom. Emotions were likely to maintain consistency (e.g., joy to joy) or transition between similar emotions (e.g., boredom to frustration) in the inquiry threads. By synthesizing the emotion transitions and subsequences manifested in the inquiry threads of different classes, we constructed a model of the evolution of emotions of academically low-achieving students during Knowledge Building. This model has implications for designing scaffolding or interventions to facilitate low-achieving students' learning and promote favorable emotions.
Self-regulated learning theory is central to computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and depends on learner autonomy to create socially shared learning, and yet function within the restraints and goals of a specific class pedagogy. By integrating the rich theoretical CSCL literature with an inductively derived theory of role-playing game practice, we develop an insightful foundation for designing, implementing, and measuring the effectiveness of low-cost scripts. This takes the form of a prompt (mere exposure prompt) that nudges learners toward a pedagogical goal while maintaining freedom of learner creativity and minimizing instructor intrusion. We assert learner engagement can be viewed through the lens of role-playing’s emphasis on aligning players’ creative agendas with game design to create a shared imagined space. Through behavioral trace data and social network analysis, we measure behaviors that differ between test/control groups, receiving the prompt, and comparing a fully online versus blended course delivery over a semester of group-based simulated business negations following role-playing game design principles. Fully online test group members accurately recall the prompt’s messages while exhibiting behaviors congruent with the pedagogical script. Learners in the blended mode recall the prompt, but their behavior is unchanged. This suggests socially shared regulation of learning in the classroom context conforms to established classroom norms, overlooking the script prompt. Learners in the fully online mode, in contrast, initiate fewer social interactions, but search out opportunities across many players, thereby demonstrating the effect of the script prompt message.
This study examines emotion regulation strategies in written digital discussions revolving around controversial issues. Twenty-five undergraduate students, placed in five study groups, took part in written digital discussions. Two groups were chosen to participate in the study. Participants were interviewed and were asked to read the transcript of the digital conversation they took part in, while referring to all conversation turns. They were asked to explain their own, as well as others’ reasoning regarding emotion expression and emotion intensity levels. Ninety-three interpretations of participants’ turns were made during the interviews. We compared the ways composers labeled their own emotions and intensity levels, with the ways in which other participants’ recognize these emotions, in order to assess the correlations between them. We report on several emotion recognition strategies that were found and point to the idiosyncratically rich but lacking in common ground nature of emotional social language. We highlight the gaps between composers' emotion labeling and others’ emotion recognition. The study offers new insight regarding emotional communication in CSCL settings, claiming that despite poor correlation rates and lack of shared emotional language, participants were indeed able to communicate emotionally. In CSCL settings, emotions function as a dialogic instrument enabling people to relate to each other by fostering closeness and establishing relations.