Can performance feedback during instruction boost knowledge acquisition? Contrasting criterion-based and social comparison feedback

Feedback indicating how well students are performing during a learning task can be very stimulating. In this study with a pre- and post-test design, the effects of two types of performance feedback on learning results were compared: feedback during a learning task was either stated in terms of how well the students were performing relative to other students (social comparison feedback) or relative to an absolute criterion (criterion-based feedback). Thirty-four students in secondary vocational engineering education were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In both conditions, students worked together in small groups. All groups completed a math learning task, during which they received either social comparison feedback or criterion-based performance feedback. The findings showed that the type of feedback had a strong effect on learning outcomes: the post-test scores and gains of students in the social comparison condition were significantly higher than those of students in the criterion-based feedback condition.     

A Comparison of Column-Dictation and Sentence Dictation Spelling with Respect to Acquisition of Meaning of Words

Abstract

In a replication of a multivariate investigation based on Atkinson’s model of the dynamics of cumulative achievement, the amount of variance explained in achievement as defined by the final grade in a course was encouraging, but the lack of evidence of effect of some of the personality variables in the model indicated that some of them may have to be operationalized differently. On the other hand, the importance of some of the environmental variables was highlighted by the results. Not surprisingly, previous performance was the best single predictor of performance.     

Digital Learning Playground: supporting authentic learning experiences in the classroom

This study proposes a platform to provide a near-authentic environment, context, and situation for task-based learning. The platform includes two projection screens (a vertical and a horizontal screen) combined for situated or authentic learning. The horizontal screen extends the vertical screen scene to form a space for learning activities and performance. The platform creates learning situations using robots as surrogates of students to accomplish real-life tasks. Kolb's four-stage experiential learning cyclical model was adopted in the learning design. A simple practice was developed to examine the effect on teaching children English as a foreign language. The results reveal that children could engage deeply and feel more enjoyment using the system. Moreover, as surrogates for students to imagine that they are accomplishing real-life missions, robots could be a vital element of authentic learning in future classrooms.     

A question–answer system for mobile devices in lecture-based instruction: a qualitative analysis of student engagement and learning

The aim of this study was to explore the opinions, perceptions and evaluations of students about their experiences with a question–answer system used on mobile devices in a lecture-based course. Basic qualitative research method was employed in this study to understand how students made sense of their experiences during the instruction. The participants of the study were 25 of 42 students enrolled in a Computer Hardware course, who were interviewed in five sessions of focus-groups. Data analysis was done based on the six steps of inductive analysis. The results showed that students mostly ascribed the meaning of their engagement to the observable behaviors about academic challenge. Concerning inhibiting factors for participating in a lecture, they stressed the constraints of lecture method. As inhibiting factors for asking questions, they mostly stated shyness as a reason. The results of the research were discussed reflectively to investigate the constructed meanings of participants about the context and to make suggestions for further studies.     

Towards Knowledge Building: From Facts to Explanations in Primary Students' Computer Mediated Discourse

Educational institutions are required to find new pedagogical and cognitive models and practices to cope with the challenges of an emerging knowledge society. In creating a theoretical and practical model for future education, Scardamalia and Bereiter have proposed the concept of knowledge building. An early implementation of this idea was in the networked classroom software and ancillary structures known as Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE). The present study aimed to explore the indicators of knowledge building in computer-mediated discourse among 26 11-year-old Finnish students. The data were collected during a four-week course on Energy, and consisted of students' postings stored in the CSILE database. Analysis revealed three pedagogically and cognitively different modes of discourse: social-oriented, fact-oriented, and explanation-oriented. These modes differed essentially from each other in the nature of the knowledge which students constructed during discourse and in the object and focus of students' communication. During explanation-oriented discourse, students actively used abstract and scientific concepts and the objects of their comments were theories, ideas and methods of research. Such activity is a component of knowledge building. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The exploration of student-centred approaches for the improvement of learning programming in higher education

The author has undergone a major shift in the way of teaching his undergraduate computer programming courses. In the classroom, the teacher＇s computer is connected to a splitter and a video projector that display the computer＇s screen to the entire class. Using this technology, the programming language itself is used live in class to help the students learn how to program. The students are learning in a context by far livelier than those of previous methods. Teaching computer programming is not achieved by lecturing and writing the program instructions on board or by displaying program instructions to the class on transparencies or slides of electronic presentations. With the implementation of student-centered approaches, the students migrated from the state of passive receivers to constructors of computer programming concepts. Students are coached to develop a sense of exploration, individuality and autonomous thinking. The enthusiasm for technology has been facilitating and supporting the learner-centered approach. Everyone in this approach is a learner, including the teacher.     

An innovative consensus map-embedded collaborative learning system for ER diagram learning: sequential analysis of students’ learning achievements

Although computer-supported collaborative learning has been successfully applied in educational settings to improve group learning performance, most such systems still lack effective strategies for knowledge representation which could help reduce discussion time. In this study, concept mapping, already applied as a tool to help visualize and organize existing or newly learned knowledge, is incorporated to address this problem in a newly developed concept map and computer-supported collaborative learning system (CMCLS). It was designed as a quasi-experiment study and was carried out with 77 university students. The system was first used by the groups of students to illustrate their knowledge and achieve consensus during a learning activity, after which their performance and feelings of satisfaction with this innovative approach were evaluated. Patterns of learning within the proposed framework were explored. The learning behaviors, including the actions and interactions with peers of the participants during the learning activity were recorded. Finally, lag-sequential analysis was used to compare the interactions and the differences in the behavior patterns of the two groups, one using the newly developed CMCLS consensus map-embedded approach and a control group which did not use this approach. The results showed significant improvement in the learning achievement of students using the novel approach, as well as a higher degree of perceived usefulness and satisfaction. The novel consensus map-embedded approach was useful for knowledge construction and for assisting with integration of the team members’ results to produce the final ER diagram.     

Productive Discussion in Science: Gender Equity Through Electronic Discourse

Electronic discussion tools can have several advantages over classroom discussion to support productive learning conversations in science. This paper describes how an electronic collaborative discussion tool called the Multimedia Forum Kiosk (MFK) enabled equitable learning opportunities in scientific discourse: generating explanations, revising ideas of others, and asking questions. Studies compared gender differences in participation between class discussion and MFK discussion, as well as examined three different formats for electronic discussion: anonymous, attributed, and attributed with authority participation. Results indicate that in all discussions, 78% of the students contributed in electronic discussion compared to only 15.3% participation in class discussion. Females participated more than males in electronic discussion, and less than males in classroom discussion. Girls report feeling less stifled when participating in an electronic medium where anonymity is an option. All electronic discussions were characterized by high levels of scientific conceptual content, elaborations, and question-asking. Students generated a repertoire of models for phenomena, asked content-focusing questions, and provided causal explanations using MFK. Implications for future research and design of electronic discussion tools are discussed.     

Effectiveness of a Computer-Mediated Simulations Program in School Biology on Pupils' Learning Outcomes in Cell Theory

Biology knowledge and understanding is important not only for the conversion of the loftiest dreams into reality for a better life of individuals but also for preparing secondary pupils for such fields as agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, and genetic engineering. But a recent study has revealed that many aspects of school science (biology included) pose problems of understanding for pupils, simply because of the teaching methods used and the lack of adequate instructional resources. Nevertheless, a program was designed to incorporate the use of computer technology innovation called the computer-mediated simulations (CMS) program to enhance pupils' learning outcomes in school biology. The study was carried out in a real biology classroom setting. It involved comparisons between the treatment and control groups. A Solomon-Three Group quasi-experimental design was employed to involve three secondary schools situated along Njoro-Mau Narok and Elburgon-Molo roads in Nakuru district that were purposively sampled on the basis of easy accessibility and the availability of IBM compatible computers. A total of 102 pupils enrolled in three intact classes were exposed to the same content on cell division for a period of 3 weeks. Three dependent measures—the Biology Achievement Test (BAT), the Biology Classroom Environment Questionnaire (BCEQ), and the Pupil Attitude Questionnaire (PAQ)—were used to assess the effectiveness of the program on the pupils' academic achievement in cell theory, their perception of the classroom environment, and attitudes towards the biology course on cell theory. The findings of the study affirmed the impact of the CMS program on the pupils' learning outcomes in that the mean gains of the participants in the treatment groups were significantly higher than that of their counterparts in the regular program. Also, the results indicated that the mean differences between the experimental group and the true control group were statistically significant in favor of the treatment group. The findings also showed no relationship between the participants' gender and their learning outcomes. The study concludes that the use of the CMS program to augment conventional biology teaching has major implications for secondary biology instruction in this area.     

A model to predict educators’ attitudes towards technology and thus technology adoption

Abstract

“Technology”, the buzz word for the last ten to fifteen years in South Africa. Technology availability is quite often mistaken for technology adoption and use. Technology has been made available to almost all tertiary institutions and at least some public schools. However, in most tertiary institutions many professors still refuse to use technology to enhance their lectures and many educators in schools have not yet “come on board” in a manner of speaking. The South African government has indicated its intention to ensure that every school has access to a wide choice of diverse, high quality communication services that will benefit all learners and local communities (DOE 2004). It is important that the Department of Basic Education recognizes that regardless of the amount of technology and its sophistication, technology will not be used unless educators have the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to infuse it into the curriculum. The aim of this paper is to determine educators’ attitudes towards technology and thus technology adoption in teaching and learning. In doing so, this study attempted to determine what educators’ attitudes/perceptions (used synonymously) are towards constructs (e.g. relative advantage, perceived behavioural control, complexity) extracted from the different information systems (IS) technology adoption models. Thereafter, regression analysis was used to determine the best predictor of educators’ attitudes and thus technology adoption. The findings of this study suggest that overall the educators perceptions are somewhat positive across most IS constructs with the notable exception of Perceived Behavioural Control and Facilitating Conditions where the mean are below 3.5. The analysis suggests that the independent variables explaining the greatest amount of variance in computer attitudes are in order of predicative value: extrinsic motivation, perceived usefulness, complexity, perceived behavioural control and relative advantage. The results point to the importance of educators’ vision of technology itself, their experiences with it, their perceptions towards computer attributes and the conditions that surround its introduction into schools in shaping their attitudes towards technology and its subsequent diffusion into their educational practice.     

Supporting learning with interactive multimedia through active integration of representations

When learners explore dynamic and interactive visualisations they are often not able to interact with them in a systematic and goal-oriented way. Frequently, even supporting learners in processes of discovery learning does not lead to better learning outcomes. This can be due to missing pre-requisite knowledge such as the coherent mental integration of the pictorial and symbolic sources of information. In order to support learners in this process, we encouraged them to interactively and externally relate different static sources of information to each other before exploring dynamic and interactive visualisations. We evaluated the benefit of this instructional support in two experimental studies concerning the domains of statistics and mechanics. It revealed that the active integration of static representations before processing dynamic visualisations resulted in better performance and can provide a basis for a more systematic and goal-oriented experimentation behaviour during simulation-based discovery learning.in final form: 16 November 2004     

The Effects of Gender Interaction Patterns on Student Participation in Computer-Supported Collaborative Argumentation

In this study we examined response patterns in exchanges between males and females and their effects on gender participation in five online debates. Students classified messages into arguments, evidence, critiques, and elaborations while posting messages to the debates to facilitate argumentation and the sequential analysis of message-response sequences. The findings revealed no differences in number of critiques posted in response to arguments because females were just as likely as males to critique messages from both males and females, and because females responded to males with critiques at a higher than expected frequency. Posthoc analysis revealed strong indications that females posted fewer rebuttals to the critiques of females than males, and males posted more rebuttals to the critiques of females than females. The methods used in this study illustrate a process-oriented approach to explain and predict gender differences in participation and serve as a framework for future research on gender participation, group interaction, and strategies for facilitating collaborative argumentation and problem solving.