Adopting learning technologies: from belief to practice

A challenge faced by most heads of academic departments around the world is to manage the adoption and use of appropriate learning technologies in order to support the department’s learning offerings to students. Earlier research undertaken by the authors revealed that lecturers within the Department of Marketing and Retail Management at the University of South Africa believed a learning management system (LMS) to be the most appropriate technology to use. The experience of the Chair of Department, however, is that lecturers are using the university’s proprietary LMS, myUnisa, either to a limited extent or hardly at all. Consequently, further research was undertaken targeting the other Chairs of Departments and selected senior lecturers within the School of Management Sciences, to which the Department of Marketing and Retail Management belongs, in order to identify ways of increasing the use of myUnisa amongst lecturers.     

Development of the self-regulated learning teacher belief scale

The present study describes the development and psychometric properties of the Self-Regulated Learning Teacher Belief Scale (SRLTB). The SRLTB is a self-report teacher scale with 10 items assessing teachers' beliefs about introducing self-regulated learning (SRL) in primary education. The process of item and scale development as well as testing and scale refinement procedure is presented. An explorative study (n=399) revealed a one-factor structure representing adherence of teachers for SRL in primary school. Next, Rasch analysis revealed good fit of the scale to the unidimensional continuum model. In a following study (n=553), construct validity of the SRLTB was confirmed. Finally, implications and limitations of the SRLTB for studying SRL are discussed. In general, the SRLTB appears to be a useful instrument for examining teacher beliefs about self-regulated learning practices in primary schools.     

A dynamic ubiquitous learning resource model with context and its effects on ubiquitous learning

Most ubiquitous learning researchers use resource recommendation and retrieving based on context to provide contextualized learning resources, but it is the kind of one-way context matching. Learners always obtain fixed digital learning resources, which present all learning contents in any context. This study proposed a dynamic ubiquitous learning resource model with context. The model has context information and a flexible content structure that allows contents to be adjusted dynamically in different contexts, thus providing learners the contextualized resources that best match their contexts. In order to verify the effects of the contextualized resources, a contrast experiment was carried out in a vocational school in China. The experimental results showed that the contextualized resources could better improve learners' learning achievement and efficiency, improve their self-learning efficiency while reducing their cognitive load. Learners thought the ubiquitous learning system which provided contextualized resources was more useful.     

The effects of a game-enhanced learning intervention on foreign language learning

Educational technology research and development - The rich multimedia-enhanced language content offered by modern commercial off-the-shelf games and students’ interest in playing such games...     

The effects of rigidity on school geometry learning

This study attempts to explain certain difficulties which ninth grade students face in tackling geometrical problems to prove, by relating them to general and to specific rigidity and cognitive style variables. The specific Geometrical Rigidity (GR) construct was conceived as comprising a perceptual component named Geometrical Functional Fixedness (GFF) and a conceptual component named Geometrical Method Embeddedness (GME). The general rigidity constructs were SDI and BRT that were derived within the Field Theory of K. Lewin and the Gestalt Theory respectively. The cognitive style construct was articulated-global style (measured by EFT). The results show that (a) GFF and GME are mutually independent (b) GR and its components have small negative correlations with SDI (c) GR and its components have insignificant correlations with BRT (d) GR and its components have strong negative correlations with articulated-global style (e) school geometry achievement has strong negative correlations with GR and its components, positive correlations with SDI and EFT, and insignificant correlations with BRT (f) GR is a potent and efficient predictor of future failure in school geometry learning. These results confirm the conceptual analysis of GR and indicate that GR has an independent existence as a cognitive style construct rather than a personality trait.     

Correction to: The effects of virtual human gesture frequency and reduced video speed on satisfaction and learning outcomes

Educational technology research and development - The original publication inadvertently referenced agent persona instead of satisfaction in the title and abstract (lines 11 and 17). The abstract...     

The effects of constructivist learning environments: a commentary

This special issue on the effects of constructivist learning environments is based on a symposium organized during the last annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago. The studies in this issue not only provide an overview of the multitude of forms a constructivist learning environment can take, they also provide the reader with an overview of recent advances in this domain of research. The present discussion article provides a critical reflection on the studies in this special issue and tries to identify their prospects and limitations.     

The effects of robot-assisted language learning: A meta-analysis

Given the importance of learner–interlocutor interactions, social robots have received considerable attention in the field of language learning, as this technology can physically accompany learners, is equipped with common social behaviors, and can effectively communicate with learners for language acquisition. In line with the continuous efforts to examine the effects of using social robots in language learning, this study is a meta-analysis aiming to integrate the findings of previous experimental studies on robot-assisted language learning (RALL), focusing on language learning achievement. To this end, we selected 12 independent samples (N = 522) from the initial pool of 16 empirical studies—including 23 independent samples (N = 1147)—and computed effect sizes along with their standard errors. The results indicated that RALL had a medium-sized average effect (d = 0.59, SE = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.41–0.76) compared to non-RALL conditions, such as traditional learning conditions without technology (e.g., teacher-only) or other technology-mediated conditions (e.g., virtual agents and tablet PCs). We further identified several moderator variables (i.e., age group, target language, language domain, robots’ role, interaction type, type of non-RALL condition), and provided an in-depth discussion on how these variables were related to the effectiveness of using robots for language learning.     

Early science learning: The effects of teacher talk

Our study addresses the relationship between teacher talk and children’s conceptual learning in early science instruction. We examined the role of teacher talk in N = 32 kindergarten classes. The teachers were video-recorded at the beginning of a four-week instruction phase while assisting a group of children who were dealing with a learning unit on floating and sinking. The coding of teacher talk included expressions that were pertinent to the content (content-specific vocabulary) and talk that performed an underlying scaffolding function (scaffolding utterances). Teachers’ scaffolding utterances were assigned to four sub-types. The children’s conceptual understanding was measured in individual sessions in a pre-post design. The results of two different analytic approaches indicated that the teachers’ content-specific language acted as a positive predictor of the children’s learning outcomes whereas both positive and negative effects were found with respect to the sub-types of scaffolding utterances.     

The effects of virtual human gesture frequency and reduced video speed on satisfaction and learning outcomes

Educational technology research and development - Educators use various strategies to increase listening comprehension for nonnative English speakers in the classroom and multimedia environments....     

The twin-cycle experiential learning model: reconceptualising Kolb's theory

Experiential learning styles remain popular despite criticisms about their validity, usefulness, fragmentation and poor definitions and categorisation. After examining four prominent models and building on Bergsteiner, Avery, and Neumann's suggestion of a dual cycle, this paper proposes a twin-cycle experiential learning model to overcome identified problems and integrate the experiential learning field. In the model, an initial response to a learning stimulus or intent occurs at the intersection of a concrete/active/primary learning cycle and an abstract/passive/secondary cycle. The model accommodates four classes of variables that describe six broad learning activity types (engage in, write about, observe, hear/see, read, hear), the three senses these activities predominantly engage (kinaesthetic, visual, aural), six learning modes (concrete, active, primary, abstract, passive, secondary) and four learning stages. Importantly, instead of assigning learning modes to stages of learning as Kolb does, the model assigns them to the two cycles as a whole.     

Evaluating the effects of analogy enriched text on the learning of science: The importance of learning indexes

Research has shown that differences in the prior knowledge of the participants and in the learning indexes adopted can explain why some studies show positive learning effects of analogy enriched text while others do not. In the present studies, these two factors were combined into one through the construction of a learning index that measured incremental positive changes in the participants' prior knowledge after reading an analogy enriched or no analogy text. A second learning index was also used to evaluate whether the participants created well-formed conceptual models after reading the science text. These learning indexes were used in two studies in which the effects of analogy enriched versus no analogy text were compared on the learning of the scientific explanations of the day/night cycle and of the seasons. The participants were 3rd and 5th graders in the first study and 6th graders and college students in the other. Although only few of the participants learned the correct scientific explanation, those who read the analogy enriched text produced more incremental positive changes in their pretest explanations at posttest and delayed test and created more well-formed conceptual models close to the scientific one than those who read the no analogy text. They also recalled more information and created fewer invalid inferences in their recalls. The results indicate that analogies can be used without reservation to facilitate the learning of science and have broader implications about how to evaluate the learning of science in general.