Embedding diagnostic mechanisms in a digital game for learning mathematics

Mathematics is closely related to daily life, but it is also one of the lessons which often cause anxiety to primary school students. Digital game-based learning (DGBL) has been regarded as a sound learning strategy in raising learner willingness and interest in many disciplines. Thus, ways of designing a DGBL system to mitigate anxiety are well worth studying. This study adopts an Input–Process–Outcome DGBL model to develop a DGBL system with a diagnostic mechanism strategy for a primary school mathematics course. In addition to exploring the impact of different learning methods on learning performance, this study further analyzes the learning methods in terms of learner anxiety about mathematics, learning motivation and learning satisfaction from the perspective of Attention, Relevance, Confidence-building, and Satisfaction (ARCS) motivation theory. The diagnostic mechanism strategy demonstrates the advantages of the DGBL system for mathematics learning. During the learning process, the ARCS questionnaire revealed that students who engage in learning through the DGBL method are positively motivated. The findings of this study suggest that centering on the daily life experiences of learners, integrating a proper game model into mathematics learning and providing a diagnostic mechanism prompt can effectively enhance interest in learning mathematics and reduce anxiety. When anxiety is mitigated, both learning motivation and learning performance are enhanced.     

Individual differences in an English learning achievement system: gaming flow experience,gender differences and learning motivation

Despite the growing interest in digital game-based learning (DGBL), there has been a lack of attention paid to the effects of individual differences, such as gaming flow experience and gender differences, in a reward-based achievement system. To this end, this study developed an achievement system with a reward mechanism to facilitate English learning. This study investigated how individuals’ gaming flow experience levels affected their levels of learning motivation, and whether any gender differences existed in gaming flow experience and learning motivation while engaging in the achievement system. The results showed that gaming flow experience significantly predicted learning motivation, whereby the students with high gaming flow experience were six times more likely to have high learning motivation than those with low gaming flow experience. Subsequent analysis showed that the female students had significantly higher gaming flow than the male students, but the male and female students showed similar learning motivation. Furthermore, the results indicated that the male students achieved more interactive rewards than the female students, but no significant differences were found in the male and female students’ achievement of other types of rewards. Based on these findings, the authors contribute to the literature by developing a framework which can be applied to support designers to accommodate individual differences in DGBL.     

Use of digital game based learning and gamification in secondary school science: The effect on student engagement,learning and gender difference

This study aimed to identify the impact of a game based learning (GBL) application using computer technologies on student engagement in secondary school science classrooms. The literature reveals that conventional Science teaching techniques (teacher-centered lecture and teaching), which foster rote learning among students, are one of the major concerns in Pakistan Education system. This leads to student disengagement in science lessons eventually resulting in student absenteeism and dropouts from the schools. This study consisted of five stages: (1) examining the impact of Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) and gamification on engagement, learning and gender difference, and literature related to using DGBL models for instructional design; (2) planning learning activities and developing a GBL application based on a specific content in Science; (3) conducting an intervention with a sample of 72 participants of 8th grade (aged 12–15) in a low cost private school of Pakistan following quasi-experimental research framework; (4) observing behaviour and emotions of the participants during science lessons; (5) conducting pre and post tests to assess the learning outcomes of participants followed by focus groups discussion. Analysis from Friedman test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test show that the GBL application has a positive influence on student engagement. However, GBL application was not equally effective for all students since girls outperformed boys in terms of engagement and learning outcomes. This study gives insights into the development of better educational games to promote student learning.     

Digital game elements,user experience and learning: A conceptual framework

The primary aim of this paper is to identify and theoretically validate the relationships between core game design elements and mechanics, user motivation and engagement and consequently learning. Additionally, it tries to highlight the moderating role of player personality traits on learning outcomes and acceptance and suggest ways to incorporate them in the game design process. To that end, it outlines the role of narrative, aesthetics and core game mechanics in facilitating higher learning outcomes through intrinsic motivation and engagement. At the same time, it discusses how player goal orientation, openness to experience, conscientiousness, sensation seeking and need for cognition influence the translation of the gameplay experience into valuable learning outcomes and user acceptance of the technology.     

Learner agency in language learning: the story of a distance learner of EFL in China

Learner agency plays a key role in self-regulated learning. Yet, there is a paucity of research into its role in the distance learning context. Using reflective narratives written by a distance learner of English in China, this longitudinal case study aims to investigate the ways in which learner agency mediates the language learning in the distance mode. Findings from the study suggest that agency has a major impact on learners’ self-efficacy, identity, motivation, and metacognition—four constructs which are instrumental in determining language learning success, in particular in the distance learning context. Analysis of the data indicates that positive changes in these four constructs, in turn, lead to further agentic engagement, hence forming a virtuous circle of mutual enhancement. Implications are discussed in relation to fostering distance learners’ goal awareness, enhancing their self-efficacy, maintaining their motivation, and encouraging metacognitive efforts.     

Self-efficacy and cognitive achievement: implications for students with learning problems

This article presents a self-efficacy model of achievement that comprises entry characteristics, self-efficacy for learning, task engagement variables, and efficacy cues. Students' sense of self-efficacy for learning is influenced as they work on tasks by cues that signal how well they are learning. Research is summarized on the effects of social and instructional variables on self-efficacy and achievement behaviors. Empirical evidence supports the idea that self-efficacy predicts student motivation and learning. Future research directions are provided, along with educational implications for students with learning problems.     

Impact of narrative and badging on learning and engagement in a psychology learning game

The literature reflects a shortage of empirical research on educational game design. This paper presents the results from a randomized controlled study on the impact of narrative and digital badging on learning and engagement in an educational game that teaches basic brain structure and function to undergraduate psychology students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, and correspondingly played a base version of the game, the base version plus fantasy-based narrative, the base version plus digital badges or the base version and both fantasy-based narrative and digital badges. Eighty students completed a subject matter pretest, played the game in its entirety and then completed a posttest. Quantitative analyses revealed that the manipulations did not significantly impact learning or engagement. While the manipulations were ineffective in this study, future research should examine how professional writing affects narrative impact and how difficulty level can be better assessed in digital badging in order to see if the results remain consistent.     

The role of cognitive engagement in classroom learning and motivation

The article analyzes the concept of student cognitive engagement, and the manner in which classroom instruction may develop self‐regulated learners. Since theory and research on academic motivation, to date only vaguely define the role of learning processes, and since studies of learning strategies rarely assess motivational outcomes, our analysis integrates these two streams of literature. We also identify specific features of instruction and discuss how they might influence the complex of student interpretive processes focal to classroom learning and motivation. Measurement issues and research strategies peculiar to the investigation of cognitive engagement are addressed.     

学习者信息素养、在线学习投入及学习绩效关系的实证研究

中国在线教育“质量革命”已经到来,以学习者视角的在线学习分析与评估至关重要。该研究基于“学习预备—学习过程—学习结果”的3P分析框架,构建了学习者信息素养、在线学习投入、深度学习动机与策略,以及在线学习绩效各要素之间的在线学习影响因素关系模型,并采用结构方程模型法分析其作用关系和影响效应。研究表明,学习者信息素养对其在线学习投入、在线学习绩效、深度学习动机和策略均具有直接正向影响;在线学习投入对在线学习绩效具有直接正向影响;在线学习绩效对深度学习动机和策略具有直接正向影响;在线学习投入是信息素养与在线学习绩效的中介变量,但未达到关键程度;在线学习绩效是信息素养到深度学习动机和策略的关键中介变量,且对深度学习动机影响力大于深度学习策略。最后,文章提出优化学习者在线学习效果的相关研究建议。     

Comparative analysis of the impact of traditional versus innovative learning environment on student attitudes and learning outcomes

This study explored the claim that different classroom layouts can affect teaching and learning. At the time of the study, there were few robust evaluative frameworks able to isolate and then measure the impact of different educational layouts. In response, this study employed a quasi-experimental approached facilitated by a Single Subject Research Design (SSRD) to compare two different classroom layouts - a traditional classroom layout and ‘Innovative Learning Environment’ (ILE) in an Australian secondary schooling context. The study compared students’ attitudes to their learning experiences, motivation, engagement and academic outcomes in each layout over a school year. Comparative analyses highlighted how students’ attitudes to their learning experiences and engagement differed in the two designs. A correlation was identified between enhanced student attitudes in an ILE and higher English, Humanities and Mathematics academic achievement when compared with cognitively matched peers who occupied a traditional classroom for the same period. This initial empirical evidence, even though restricted to a single site, was able to discern a measurable link between the occupation of different learning spaces and an impact on student learning experiences, engagement and academic outcomes in secondary schooling context.     

Murder on Grimm Isle: The impact of game narrative design in an educational game‐based learning environment

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of narrative design in a game‐based learning environment. Specifically, this investigation focuses the narrative design in an adventure‐styled, game‐based learning environment for fostering argumentation writing by looking at how the game narrative impacted player/learner (1) intrinsic motivation, (2) curiosity, (3) plausibility and (4) transference of game‐based experiences into prewriting activities. The methodological framework for this qualitative investigation is a case study with grounded theory methodology. The setting is an educational, three‐dimensional, immersive game‐based learning environment titled Murder on Grimm Isle, used to foster argumentation and persuasion writing for Grades 9–14. The participants included 20 college students. The findings of the investigation reveal that intrinsic motivation, curiosity and plausibility were first supported by the game‐like environment, and then sustained through the narrative and the environment. Additionally, game‐based experiences were transferred into prewriting activities. Unanticipated findings revealed some student resistance. The goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of narrative design for game‐based learning environments.     

Courseware development with animated pedagogical agents in learning system to improve learning motivation

The addition of animated pedagogical agents (APAs) in computer-assisted learning (CAL) systems could successfully enhance students' learning motivation and engagement in learning activities. Conventionally, the APA incorporated multimedia materials are constructed through the cooperation of teachers and software programmers. However, the thinking and technical gap between two roles, a concept/content provider (teacher) and an implementer (software programmer), may lead to the concept distortion and loss in the final teaching material implementations. This often results in preventing a teacher from preparing his or her own APA-based multimedia learning systems. This study aims to develop a courseware to facilitate the CAL through the combination of the two roles into a single one and then teachers can use it freely by themselves. The courseware can help teachers to develop appropriate multimedia instructional materials incorporating APAs, which attracts students' attention and enhances their interest in learning. Furthermore, in this study two separate trial experiments were conducted to measure the teachers' satisfaction with the courseware and students' learning motivation after using APA-based multimedia learning systems. The results show that the participating teachers were satisfied with the courseware and would like to apply it in their instruction. Moreover, the participating students were strongly motivated by the customized APA-based multimedia learning systems. Therefore, the proposed courseware could give teachers a good opportunity to add pedagogical value to the curriculum, so that students' learning interest and motivation could be enhanced.     

在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型构建及应用

在协作学习中学习投入与学习成效紧密相关,是学生进行有效参与和深度学习的必要条件。但目前的研究大多针对个人学习投入,缺乏在协作学习中小组学习投入的相关研究。在前人研究基础上,本研究从认知投入、行为投入、社会投入、情感投入四个维度构建了在线协作学习中小组学习投入的分析模型,并通过实证研究进一步探索小组投入分析模型各维度与小组学习成绩之间的关系。结果表明,在小组学习投入中行为投入、社交投入与小组成绩呈显著正相关关系,而积极、消极、困惑三类情感投入则与小组成绩呈负相关关系。研究同时发现,高分组在中立情感投入、认知投入的问题和元认知维度中的均值都高于低分组。最后,通过分析在线小组学习投入与成绩之间的关系,为今后优化学习支持服务以及提高小组成员协作质量提供了依据。     

The interplay between students' motivational profiles and science learning

Students' motivation plays an important role in successful science learning. However, motivation is a complex construct. Theories of motivation suggests that students' motivation must be conceptualized as a motivational system with numerous components that interact in complex ways and influence metacognitive processes such as self-evaluation. This complexity is further increased because students' motivation and success in science learning influence each other as they develop over time. It is challenging to study the co-development of motivation and learning due to these complex interactions which can vary widely across individuals. Recently, person-centered approaches that capture students' motivational profiles, that is, the multiplicity of motivational factors as they co-occur in students, have been successfully used in educational psychology to better understand the complex interplay between the co-development of students' motivation and learning. We employed a person-centered approach to study how the motivational profiles, constructed from goal-orientation, self-efficacy, and engagement data of N = 401 middle school students developed over the course of a 10-week energy unit and how that development was related to students' learning. We identified four characteristic motivational profiles with varying temporal stability and found that students' learning over the course of the unit was best characterized by considering the type of students' motivational profiles and the transitions that occurred between them. We discuss implications for the design and implementation of interventions and future research into the complex interplay between motivation and learning.     

Biosphere 2 as an informal learning platform to assess motivation,fascination, and cognitive achievement for sustainability

Educational outreach facilities provide unique opportunities to learn sciences at the forefront of research. An example is Biosphere 2, a site of environmental and ecological research, which is coupled to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Research facilities can evoke the relevance of sciences in everyday life. This is important in secondary schooling to increase students’ engagement in sciences, while environmental challenges continue to expand. We therefore examined the role of fascination and motivation on learning with 5th to 12th grade students who participated in a half- to full-day on-site education program. Our data confirmed the construct of fascination through Rasch and factor analysis, revealed substantial knowledge gains, showed effects of motivation and fascination on knowledge scores, and suggested that authentic learning enhanced science engagement. Results further indicated that both instruments measure an analogous construct, while motivation appeared to have more predictive power on cognitive achievement.     

Family Narratives of Biliteracy

This article explores the concept of narratives of biliteracy or how two bilingual mothers defined biliteracy for their families through the construction of narratives. This study is approached through a theoretical discussion of narratives to investigate how the two families constructed certain versions of their realities as they observed, interpreted and made sense of their children's experiences in reading in two languages. After presenting each family's narrative, this study will explore how underlying these narratives are language‐driven ideologies that allowed each mother to construct different meanings of bilingualism and biliteracy for their families. The findings and conclusion suggest that these language‐driven ideologies were based on how the mothers discussed the positive and negative effects that learning in two languages has on their children's educational and transnational experiences.     

Evaluation of a pedagogical model for student engagement in learning activities

Current research suggests that student engagement with academic schoolwork in secondary school classrooms is often insufficient. This issue is of relevance because student engagement is a prerequisite for acquiring knowledge and skills and is also a mediator of achievement and important life outcomes. In response to this, the present study evaluates a pedagogical model for stimulating student engagement in learning activities in secondary school contexts through an action research approach. This model is composed of five facilitators of engagement that, when considered in both the design and implementation of learning activities, can potentially contribute to stimulating behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in such activities. Nineteen Year 9 students of Spanish from a state school in England, their teacher and the researcher participated in two long-term, learning activities designed using the proposed pedagogical model. Data were collected over two school terms through qualitative student self-reports, interviews with students and their teacher and the researcher’s journal. Thematic analyses were used to examine the effects of the learning activities on student behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement. The results seem to confirm that the application of the proposed pedagogical model could help promote thorough student engagement in learning activities. Findings also suggest that failing to support the model’s facilitators of engagement may have detrimental effects on overall student engagement in learning activities. The study contributes to the improvement of student engagement with academic schoolwork internationally by proposing an assessed pedagogical solution that could be implemented by secondary school teachers with relative ease.     

'Who I work with is important': dyslexic students' narratives about the benefits of grouping for instruction in Caribbean classrooms

This article utilises a multiple case study strategy to explore the narratives of Caribbean students with dyslexia on grouping for instruction. It presents a model on learner engagement which highlights students' cognitions about the social and cognitive aspects of learning and the processes that contribute to building knowledge and understanding. The qualitative research design combines multiple methods of data collection, mainly focus groups, in-depth interviews, documentary evidence along with narrative observations to capture the experiences of students. This research also demonstrates that students are the most powerful resource available to teachers, and that engaging them in dialogue can facilitate the development of effective pedagogies for teaching.     

Just like my nanny: troubling teacher’s social identities in the classroom

Teacher-researcher narrative accounts are essential and insightful for the science education field, yet they are few and far-between. In this forum, I engage in dialogue with Nicole Grimes’s auto-ethnographic narrative on the affordances her femme-Carribean identity allowed for some students to engage more deeply in science. While I agree with and applaud Grimes’s reflection on how her perceived social identity had positive effects on some students’ engagement in science, I trouble the notion of such a social identity being framed solely as an asset to student learning by examining the power dynamics inherent in the enacted nanny-child relationship. I also propose the need for deeper analyses on how a teacher’s social identity can impact students’ learning experiences in the science classroom by looking at how the boundaries of the science classroom are redefined and what additional resources are recruited that can foster deeper engagement.     

Exploring autonomous learning capacity from a self-regulated learning perspective using learning analytics

Practising self-regulated learning (SRL) has been proposed to develop learning autonomy. However, there is lack of empirical evidence on how SRL strategies affect autonomous learning capacity. This study attempts to bridge that gap by utilizing the learners’ trace data for measuring the learners’ autonomous interactions, and investigates the effects of four SRL strategies on learners’ autonomous choices. The goal is to explain how the employed SRL strategies impact autonomous control (in terms of frequencies of self-enforced decisions, as well as time-spent on decision making). The results from an exploratory study with undergraduate learners (N = 113) shown that goal-setting and time-management have strong positive effects on autonomous control, effort-regulation moderately positively affects learners’ autonomy, while help-seeking has a strong negative effect. These findings provide empirical evidence and contribute to clarifying the role of each one of the SRL strategies in the development of autonomous learning capacity, from a learning analytics perspective. Limitations and potential implications for research and practice are also discussed.