Aesthetics and e-assessment: the interplay of emotional design and learner performance

The purpose of this study has been to examine the impacts of aesthetic design on learner experience in an e-assessment environment, specifically on cognitive load and task performance. Sixty-six postsecondary students were randomly assigned to one of two aesthetic design configurations of the e-assessment environment: (1) an environment with low consideration to aesthetic design (i.e., designed to provide the utility and usability necessary to complete the tasks), and (2) the same environment (i.e., identical utility, task objectives, and task media) designed with several aesthetic enhancements to heighten the learner experience. Findings suggest that aesthetic design significantly decreased participant cognitive load and increased participant satisfaction, willingness to continue use, voluntary self-assessment time, and task performance. Qualitative data support these findings. The results of this study provide practical insights for designers exploring the valuable relationship between aesthetic design and the learner experience.     

Mobile microlearning design and effects on learning efficacy and learner experience

Mobile microlearning platforms have increased over the years. Literature shows that platforms use specific instructions or media, such as videos or multiformat materials (e.g., text, audio, quizzes, hands-on exercises). However, few studies investigate whether or how specific design principles used on these platforms contribute to learning efficacy. A mobile microlearning course for journalism education was developed using the design principles and instructional flow reported in literature. The goal of this formative research was to study the mobile microcourse’s learning efficacy, defined as effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. Learners’ knowledge before and after the mobile microcourse was analyzed using semistructured questionnaires as well as pretests and posttests to measure differences. The results indicate that learners of this mobile microcourse had an increase in knowledge, more certainty in decisions about practical applications, and an increase in confidence in performing skills. However, automated feedback, timed gamified exercises, and interactive real-world content indicate room for improvement to enhance effective learning.

     

Multimedia and the changing experience of the learner

This paper argues for a pedagogical analysis of what the new multimedia systems can offer that will impose on them a more ambitious objective than they currently have. It begins by summarising a framework for analysing educational media, in terms of how well they each support the teaching-learning process. The different types of media are then related to different 'modes' of learning: via the narrative media which support learning through acquisition, the discursive media which support learning through discussion, the interactive media, which support learning by discovery, and adaptive media which can be used to support 'guided discovery'. Multimedia is sometimes seen as a way of re-purposing material originally developed for narrative media. Because it can be (even should be) an adaptive medium, this requires the learning objectives to be re-constructed if the new medium is to achieve its pedagogical potential and offer a new kind of learning experience to students.     

Learning joyfully: An emotional and transformative experience

Abstract

In this article I focus on the emotion of joy in the classroom and identify the role that experiencing joy has in promoting engagement and satisfaction in learning. For educationists, the implication that the emotional climate of the classroom has as much to do with cognitive growth as it does with attitudinal needs to be recognised and addressed. As Bloom and his colleagues noted in 1956, the idea of dualistic notion of cognition and affect is untenable as these inform each other. How the brain is structured and developed affects how we learn. Because the circuitry of the brain is sculptured by emotional experiences it can alter during one's lifetime. Emotions contribute to the brain's neural circuitry experiencing joy will lay down neural pathways likely to serve the individual well for a lifetime. Furthermore, joy promotes holistic learning through engaging both left and right hemispheres. Joy, as an emotion, involves accepting challenges that stretch one's capacity and persevering through often‐painful experiences until a successful outcome is reached. This ultimate achievement can then be celebrated and recognised as a joyful learning experience. Teachers who promote the experience of joy in the classroom may do more than simply promote successful learning.     

Preschoolers at risk: Social,emotional and cognitive considerations

This report examines the IQs of 75 preschool children perceived to be “at risk” by parents, nursery school teachers, and diagnostic nursery staff. Full Scale, verbal and Performance IQs of the WPPSI were correlated with: (a) assessment of problem area (b) socioeconomic and familial variables (c) gross assessments of speech and motor development and (d) attendance, participation and improvement in a special preschool program. Significant correlations were obtained between IQ and: (a) socioeconomic and familial variables, and (b) perceived improvement. The findings emphasize that social, emotional and cognitive factors are interrelated components in the child's global development.     

Revisiting the teachers' lounge: Reflections on emotional experience and teacher identity

This essay explores the relationship between emotion and teacher identity, using a framework of personal experience and published research from a variety of disciplines. The author argues that an increased awareness of emotional experience serves not only to increase rapport among educators, but also to counteract the persistent dehumanization of the teaching profession in our current sociopolitical context. She highlights the work of other educational scholars to suggest various means by which this awareness can be cultivated in research and teaching practice.     

Adolescents' cognitive and emotional responses to marital hostility

Early adolescents' (11-14 years) responses to marital hostility were examined in a sample of 416 families. The cognitive-contextual perspective and emotional security hypothesis guided the study and 9 adolescent responses were identified. Prospective associations were examined in several structural equation models that included adolescent problems as outcomes. Self-blame and perceived threat uniquely mediated the association between Year 1 marital hostility and Year 3 adolescent externalizing problems (p<.05). Self-blame, lower constructive representations, internalization of feelings, avoidance, and emotional dysregulation uniquely mediated the association between Year 1 marital hostility and Year 3 internalizing problems. Specific cognitive and emotionally based responses are important to understanding how martial hostility affects youth and need to be considered within an integrated model.     

The positioning of adult learners: appropriating learner experience on the continuum of empowerment to emancipation

This article offers a critical analysis of discourses and power structures and the ways they operate in two instructors’ adult education and ESOL classrooms. The instructors defined learner experience in specific ways and subsequently used those definitions and drew on their learners’ experiences to define their curricula and pedagogy. They conceptualized learner experiences in ways that potentially empowered or emancipated learners from existing power structures. The data presented are part of a two‐year study of different lifelong learning and adult education contexts in the north‐eastern and mid‐western USA. Data sources included survey, interview, artifact collection, and observation methods. Data analysis was guided by a sociocultural theory of literacy development (The New London Group 1996 New London Group. 1996. A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66: 60–92. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Gee 1996 Gee, J. 1996. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses , (2nd edn), London: Falmer.  [Google Scholar], 2003 Gee, J. 2003. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, New York: Macmillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Barton and Hamilton 1998 Barton, D. and Hamilton, M. 1998. Local Literacies: Reading and writing in one community, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Holland et al.'s (1998 Holland, D., Lachicotte, W. Jr., Skinner, D. and Cain, C. 1998. Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar]) theories of figured worlds and identity development, Bakhtin’s (1963 Bakhtin, M. M. 1963. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Edited by: Emerson, C. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. 1994 [Google Scholar], 1975 Bakhtin, M. M. 1975. The Dialogic Imagination, Edited by: Emerson, C. and Holquist, M. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1998 [Google Scholar], 1979 Bakhtin, M. M. 1979. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, Edited by: Mcgee, V. W. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1994 [Google Scholar], 1986 Bakhtin, M. M. 1986. Toward a Philosophy of the Act, Edited by: Liapunov, V. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1993 [Google Scholar]) theory of dialogism, and Foucault’s (1963 Foucault, M. 1963. The Birth of the Clinic: An archaeology of medical perception, Edited by: Sheridan‐Smith, A. New York: Vintage. 1975[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1980 Foucault, M. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews & other writings, 1972–1977, Edited by: Gordon, C., Marshall, L., Mepham, J. and Soper, K. New York: Pantheon. 1980 [Google Scholar]) conceptualization of power. One instructor offered her learners a chance to empower themselves, that is, to find gratification by learning to appropriate mainstream ways of acting, thinking, believing, and using text. The discourse that promotes such instructional efforts is predominant in lifelong learning and adult education. In this discourse, referred to at the outset as one of coherence, learner experience, as a resource for language and literacy development, is essentialized as dispositional, meaning that correct or proper attitudes and beliefs are necessary for empowerment. The other instructor practised a reverse discourse, or what Gee (1996 Gee, J. 1996. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in discourses , (2nd edn), London: Falmer.  [Google Scholar]) referred to as a liberatory literacy. She positioned learners to critique the Discourses they encountered, including those they participated in, as movement toward emancipation, toward communicative competence or a critical stance in the world. In effect, learners reversed the panoptic framework and turned the gaze back upon existing power structures. In this case, learner experience was valued for the experiential positioning it offered learners.     

New Learning: Re-apprenticing the learner

The preparation of graduates who are able to use theoretical knowledge to become independent, critical thinkers ready for the workforce and career and life changes is a major problem facing academics in higher education. This paper explores the theoretical background to the development of The Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking Tool ( ¢ TICTT), a dynamic Internet tool based on an eclectic educative model that incorporates concepts from cognitive apprenticeship, problem-based learning and critical thinking. Through the use of these concepts, the tool's design re-apprentices the learner to develop contextual knowledge and compare this knowledge to expert ways of knowing. La nouvelle Education: un nouvel apprentissage de l'apprenant. La préparation d'étudiants diplÔmés qui peuvent utiliser des connaissances théoriques pour devenir des penseurs critiques prts pour faire face des changements de la force de travail, de la cariére et de la vie est un probléme majeur auquel doivent faire face les enseignants de l'enseignement supèrieur. Cet article explore l'arriére plan du Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking Tool ( ¢ TICTT), un outil dynamique d'internet fond modèl sur un clectique d'éducation qui incorpore divers concepts depuis l'apprentissage cognitif jusqu' l'enseignement quicebase sur des problémes et la penseé critique. GrÂceÀ l'emploi de ces concepts la structure de cet outil constitue un nouvel apprentissage pour l'apprenant faisant appel un savoir conceptuel et compare ce savoir des méthodes de savoir devéloppés par des experts. Neues Lernen: Zu Fragen des Wieder-in-die-Lehre-Gehens von Absolventen. Im Bereich der akademischen Bildung ist es ein größeres Problem, Absolventen darauf vorzubereiten, Ihre Fähigkeiten im Umgang mit theoretischem Wissen zu nutzen, um auch im eigenen Berufs- und Privatleben unabhängige, Kritische Denker zu werden. Dieses Papier beschreibt den theoretischen Hintergrund zur Entwicklung eines bereichsüberschreitenden dynamischen und kritischen Internet-Denk-Werkzeugs (üTICTT), das auf einem eklektischen erzieherischen Modell basiert, das Konzepte kognitiver Lehre, problemorienten Lernens und kritischen Denkens integriert. Durch die Verwendung dieser Konzepte wird es möglich, dieses Werkzeug so zu gestalten, dass die Studenten wieder lernen, kontextuelles Wissen zu entwickeln und dieses Wissen mit auf fachlichem Weg erworbenem zu vergleichen.     

情感设计理念指导下的男装设计探究

本文讨论了男装在"情感化设计理念"的指导下设计问题,先对情感化理念进行综合论述,然后依次论述男装情感化设计的方法、形式、意义,给新时期男装的设计风格和设计思路提供一些参考意见。     

Learner-centric MOOC model: a pedagogical design model towards active learner participation and higher completion rates

Educational technology research and development - MOOCs support the global need of learning resources with large impact through online access and no geographical boundaries. However, pedagogical...     

Guiding the design of lessons by using the MAPLET framework: matching aims,processes, learner expertise and technologies

This paper introduces the MAPLET framework that was developed to map and link teaching aims, learning processes, learner expertise and technologies. An experimental study with 65 participants is reported to test the effectiveness of the framework as a guide to the design of lessons embedded within larger units of study. The findings indicate the potential of the MAPLET framework and reinforces the need to take a fresh approach to the design and development of curriculum that makes more effective use of the diminishing time available. It provides a conceptual model and working procedure that places the learner and the process of learning at the forefront of decisions.     

Locomotor experience: a facilitator of spatial cognitive development

2 studies were designed to test the prediction that spatial search strategies (i.e., "object permanence") may be influenced by locomotor experience. Infants were assigned to 3 groups based on locomotor history: prelocomotor, prelocomotor with walker-assisted experience, and hands-and-knees creeping. Infants in all groups were 8.5 months of age. Results showed that hands-and-knees and walker-assisted locomotor experience facilitated spatial search performance. The longer that infants had been moving, the higher their scores. Furthermore, there were no differences between the hands-and-knees and prelocomotor/walker-assisted groups, suggesting that the relation between locomotor experience and spatial search performance was not merely a function of the maturation of prone progression. A third study found that the quality of locomotion affected object permanence performance: Belly crawlers performed differently than infants with hands-and-knees or walker experience, insofar as they performed at prelocomotor levels regardless of weeks of locomotor experience. Taken together, the pattern of findings suggests that infants with more efficient modes of locomotion are more likely to profit from the experiences generated by locomotion.     

Language experience changes language and cognitive ability

The sustained use of two languages by bilinguals has been shown to induce broad changes in language and cognitive abilities across the lifespan. The largest changes are seen as advantages in executive control, a set of processes responsible for controlled attention, inhibition, and shifting. Moreover, there is evidence that these executive control advantages mitigate cognitive decline in older age and contribute to cognitive reserve. In this paper, we examine some of the evidence for these findings and explain their relation to bilingual language use. These effects are considered in terms of their implications for our understanding of cognitive and brain plasticity. Some implications for social policy are discussed.     

Decorative pictures and emotional design in multimedia learning

Recent studies have shown that the positive emotional design of learning environments might foster learning performance. In contrast, the seductive detail effect postulates that additional, learning irrelevant details inhibit learning. This research focusses on the implementation of decorative pictures as a prime for emotions and context-relatedness. This study examines four groups of decorative pictures which might be conducive for learning. Eighty-two students were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (emotionally positive vs. emotionally negative pictures) × 2 (school context vs. leisure context pictures) between-subjects, factorial design. The dimensions of pleasure, arousal, and dominance are examined as possible mediators. Results show that either positively valenced pictures or learning pictures foster retention and transfer performance. Pleasure is identified as mediator of the effect between valence of pictures and learning performance. A further analysis shows differences for arousal and dominance for both factors. These results are interpreted with concepts like motivated attention and other arousal theories.     

Educational psychology and the adult learner

The middle years of life, from the 20s through the 50s, have been neglected by psychology in general and educational psychology in particular. The current increase in numbers of mature learners calls for more, better, and better-understood psychological data so that learning can be enhanced in this age group. This issue of Contemporary Educational Psychology addresses five relevant questions: (1) What does research tell us about the capacities of adults to learn and retain? (2) What factors other than cognitive functioning affect adult performance? (3) How and in what ways does the adult wish to involve himself as a learner? (4) How might we go about guiding the mature learner, using present knowledge? (5) What theoretical concerns arise from consideration of the foregoing?