The Effects of Adjunct Questions and Feedback on Improving the Reading Comprehension Skills of Learning-Disabled Adolescents

Adjunct question research has typically focused on the effects of adjunct questions on improving the learning of college students. This study investigated the effects of inserted and massed postquestions (inference, main idea, and detail), with and without feedback, on improving the comprehension skills of adolescents labeled as reading disabled. Students practiced using adjunct questions for 6 weeks. The results suggested that inserted questions (and to a lesser extent massed postquestions) were beneficial in improving the comprehension of texts that did not contain adjunct questions. Specifically, the results indicated that (a) inserted questions were more effective than massed postquestions or no questions, (b) massed postquestions were more effective than no questions, and (c) the effects of inserted questions on comprehension increased over the time of treatment. The beneficial effects of feedback were limited to inference and main idea questions. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Inserted post-questions and learning from slide-tape presentations: Implications of the mathemagenic hypothesis

Summary From this review it appears that the insertion of factual postquestions into written instructional materials can result in increased learning of both intentional and incidental information. The intentional learning effect is attributed to the reinforcement resulting from review or practice. It is unclear, however, as to whether the incidental learning effect is backward (attributed to review), forward (results in the shaping of mathemagenic behaviors), or motivational. An analysis of intervening variables suggests that postquestions are generally facilitative for mature readers only, result in an increased study time, and are more effective for learners who are not highly motivated. Additional evidence suggests that the effect can be increased by using higher order questions requiring comprehension, application, or analysis. It appears that knowledge of the correct responses to the post-questions will increase intentional learning. No conclusions are drawn concerning the interaction between the use of inserted questions and ability level or passage length. This article is the second AVCR/ERIC Young Scholar Paper, an annual series initiated to stimulate writing by young professionals in the field of instructional technology. Preparation of the paper was supported by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Clearinghouse on Information Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, California. The material in this article was prepared pursuant to a contract with the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Points of view or opinions do not necessarily represent the official view or opinions of the NIE.     

Training students to process text with adjunct aids

Hypotheses about how readers learn from text augmented by objectives or by adjunct postquestions were operationalized by training students to use specific processes while reading. Achievement on a one-passage and on a four-passage curriculum was analyzed using regression analyses to identify treatment effects and aptitude-treatment interactions. Training students to use theoretically appropriate processes associated with objectives or adjunct postquestions generally reduced aptitude-treatment interaction effects, but it did not yield the expected increments in learning compared to placebo groups. Discussion centers on a pointer effect prompted by objectives and postquestions that relates to aptitude. The methodological difficulties and theoretical advantages of operationalizing students' cognitive responses to instructional stimuli by training are also described.     

Organizational Chunking and Postquestions in Facilitating Student Ability to Profit from Visualized Instruction

This experiment was designed to examine the instructional effectiveness and efficiency of organizational chunking and batched postquestions within the framework of an information-processing approach to learning and memory. The coding processes utilized by the content organization employed both encoding and retrieval aids to facilitate the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of the information to be learned. Major findings indicate that the chunked treatment resulted in a more efficient learning strategy than the conventional treatment; however, the chunked and conventional treatment, as different encoding strategies, did not produce significant differences in achievement on the performance task. Additionally, students receiving the intervening postquestion strategy took significantly less time in completing the performance measure than did those students who received the non-intervening postquestion treatment.     

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.     

Theories underlying perceived changes in teaching and learning after installing a computer network in a secondary school

This paper discusses the theoretical links between motivation and learning and the use of information technology that arose during the evaluation, by both teachers and pupils, of the effects upon teaching and learning of the installation of an extensive new computer network in their secondary school.
The school was visited throughout the 1996/7 academic year, and two questionnaire surveys were carried out during this time. The initial questionnaire was completed by 69 (73%) of the staff and a stratified, random sample comprising 161 (11%) of the pupils. Those originally surveyed were sent a follow up questionnaire at the end of the year. Responses to the questions were grouped by similarity into categories and these categories were related to theories of motivation and learning.
It is concluded that the installation of a computer network in a secondary school results in improved teaching and learning and increased enjoyment of learning in the school with both pupils and teachers viewing the use of IT as beneficial to learning.
Where such positive effects of using IT are noted they can be justified theoretically using Behaviourist, Cognitive and Social Constructivist theories of motivation and learning. The wide range of ways in which use of a computer can be both extrinsically and intrinsically motivating explains the increased motivation observed in the pupils.     

On inserting questions before or after segments of text

It has been concluded in all major reviews of adjunct question research that a group given questions after related text segments (postquestions) yields greater recall than a group given questions before related text segments (prequestions) or one not given any questions at all. However, closer examination of the earlier research and an analysis of recent research reveals that for certain types of verbatim questions and for certain high level questions, postquestions produce recall equivalent to or less than prequestions. Moreover, in many studies wherein postquestions exceed prequestions, the postquestion group equals the reading-only control group in recall of nonquestioned (incidental) material. Hence, despite frequent pronouncements to the contrary, no firm recommendation can be made regarding the optimal placement of adjunct questions in text material.     

Interactive and non-interactive pictures in multimedia learning environments: Effects on learning outcomes and learning efficiency

New technologies enable flexible combinations of text and interactive or non-interactive pictures. The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) whether adding pictures to texts is generally beneficial for learning or whether it can also have detrimental effects, (b) how interactivity of pictures affects learning, (c) whether the visualization format of pictures affects the structure of the learner's mental model, and (d) whether the visualization format modifies the effects of interactivity. One hundred university students were randomly assigned to five groups. In four groups, a text about the different daytimes and days on the earth was combined with interactive or non-interactive pictures of different visualization formats. In the fifth group, the text was presented without pictures. According to the results, adding pictures to text was neither beneficial nor harmful for learning. In terms of learning efficiency, however, learning from text only was more successful than learning from text and pictures. Interactivity was beneficial for one learning task, but not for the other task. The visualization format affected participants’ interaction with pictures, but not the learning outcomes; however this effect was not influenced by interactivity. Implications for multimedia design and for further research are pointed out.     

Depressive effects of underlining and adjunct questions on children's recall of text

Half of a sample of ten-year-old school children (N=69) were given conceptual postquestions after every paragraph of text, while the other half were not given any postquestions. Additionally, these children either generated their own underlining of one sentence per paragraph, received text with topic sentences underlined for them, or were given text without underlining of any kind. The results indicated that the readers preponderantly chose for underlining subordinate, passage details rather than superordinate, conceptual material, even when given conceptual postquestions focusing on the topic sentences of the passage. Recall of passage details was most depressed when children were provided with both underlining and conceptual postquestions. These results suggested a comprehension rather than a metacomprehension deficit, whereby underlining and adjunct questions may hinder rather than help recall performance in young readers.     

Design of learning objects for concept learning: effects of multimedia learning principles and an instructional approach

Literature suggests using multimedia learning principles in the design of instructional material. However, these principles may not be sufficient for the design of learning objects for concept learning in mathematics. This paper reports on an experimental study that investigated the effects of an instructional approach, which includes two teaching techniques – (a) variation theory and (b) representations of subject matter – on the design of learning objects for secondary school algebra concept learning. The results of this study showed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on algebra learning achievement. The results also showed that only the experimental design with the addition of the instructional approach resulted in higher-order mathematical thinking skills and improved procedural skills of the students. Further analysis reveals that concept learning was simplified when multimedia learning principles were applied and the information was presented by the instructional approach.     

Investigating the structural relationships among organisational support,learning flow,learners' satisfaction and learning transfer in corporate e‐learning

E‐learning in corporate training has been growing rapidly because of the pursuit of time and budget efficiency in course development and delivery. However, according to previous studies, efficiency does not always guarantee training effectiveness, which is the major concern of human resource development. It is therefore necessary to identify the factors influencing the effectiveness of e‐learning courseware and understand their interrelationships. The purpose of the study is to investigate the structural relationships among organisational support, learning flow, learners' satisfaction and learning transfer. The study participants were 379 learners who completed an e‐learning courseware at a large Korean company and responded to an online survey. Based on the results of structural equation modelling, the findings suggest that organisational support and learning flow have direct effects on learning transfer and learners' satisfaction, while learning flow mediates organisational support and learners' satisfaction.     

Individual and co-operative learning with interactive animated pictures

Computer-based multimedia learning environments make it possible to present interactive animated pictures, which can be manipulated for active exploratory learning and which allow the dynamic behavior of complex subject matter to be displayed. Due to the large range of possibilities for exploratory interaction, such learning environments seem well suited for co-operative learning in which different learners analyse the presented subject matter from different perspectives. This paper first describes a theoretical framework for learning from texts and pictures together with an analysis of possible effects of animation and interactivity on knowledge acquisition. It then presents two empirical studies in which knowledge acquisition from interactive animated pictures was compared with knowledge acquisition from static pictures under the conditions of individual learning (Study I) and of cooperative learning (Study II). In Study I, learning with interactive animated pictures resulted in a superior encoding of detail information, but did not facilitate performance of mental simulation tasks. In Study II, learning with interactive animated pictures resulted both in inferior encoding of detail information and poorer results in mental simulations. These findings and the analysis of discourse protocols of subjects’ co-operation suggest that exploratory learning with interactive animated pictures is associated with extraneous cognitive load and that this load can be further increased by the co-ordination demands of co-operative learning. Although animated pictures may provide external support for mental simulations, they do not appear to be generally beneficial for learning, because they can prevent individuals from performing relevant cognitive processes.     

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.     

学习绩效的内涵及其评价研究

学习绩效评价在整个学习活动中起反馈调节的作用,是每个学习者获取学习信息、改善学习决策、提高学习效率的关键因素。通过对学生学习绩效概念的明确界定,详细论述学生学习绩效所包含的三个维度的内涵与逻辑关系,它为绩效评价的设计与实施提供了新的思路,其价值取向更有利于学生面对真实情境下的问题解决和未来职业生涯规划。     

Cooperative learning and team culture in schools: Conditions for teachers’ professional development

The study done in Slovenia examined grammar and elementary teachers’ perceptions of cooperative learning. The sample consisted of 542 Slovene elementary and grammar school teachers, who teach Slovene. The main question of the research was how teachers assess the value of group learning in comparison to individual forms of learning. From their perceptions, we can draw conclusions about their development, the introduction of group work within lessons and about the encouragement of pupils towards collaborative learning. The main finding of the research is that elementary school teachers place greater importance on group learning than grammar school teachers. In addition, when teachers are grouped according to their years of experience (seniority), there are differences in their assessment of group learning. However, it is not possible to get a linear pattern from the results (e.g. showing that years of experience do or do not contribute to the perception of the importance of group learning), a finding which supports the critical opinion that teachers’ experience depends not only on the quantity (years of experience), but also on the quality of experience.     

Investigating the structure and the pattern in self-regulated learning by high school students

The research to explain student’s self-regulated learning has grown rapidly in recent years. However, the studies on self-regulated learning have shown fascinating but mixed results. Thus, there is a need to identify and describe the key dimensions of self-regulated learning according to an empirical framework in order to integrate these complex results. This study attempts to explore the structure and the pattern of self-regulated learning. In a sample of high-school students, it was found that self-regulated learning consists of three components; cognitive regulation, motivational regulation, behavioral regulation. The result also shows that students can be grouped into six clusters in terms of these components. This study appears to be useful for understanding self-regulated learning conceptually but has some methodological limitations.     

Influences of social learning on mate-choice decisions

Evidence from both field and laboratory is consistent with the hypothesis that animals can acquire mate preferences by observing the mating behavior of others. It is difficult, however, to distinguish social learning about mates from a host of other social effects on mating that do not produce changes in preferences. Examples are drawn from laboratory studies on mate choice in female and male Japanese quail that illustrate ways in which social cues influence mating decisions. Quail of both sexes use social cues to modify their mate choices, but the sexes use the information to serve different purposes. Female quail gain preferences for males seen mating with other females, whereas males avoid females that they had observed mating with other males. This sex difference in social learning provides an example of how costs and benefits of sexual behavior can shape decision-making processes. Implications of the influence of social learning on sexual selection are briefly discussed.     

Neural network approach to predict mobile learning acceptance

The proliferation of mobile computing technologies is playing major role in the growth of mobile learning (M-learning) market around the globe. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model in the lines of commonly used models the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by incorporating constructs namely flexibility learning, social learning, efficiency learning, enjoyment learning, suitability learning, and economic learning that can predict M-learning adoption in a developing country. The data were collected from 388 students from all major universities/colleges in the capital city (Muscat) of Oman. The neural network modeling was employed to predict M-learning adoption. The neural network modeling results showed that flexibility learning, social learning, efficiency learning, enjoyment learning, suitability learning, and economic learning variables have significant influence on the intention of students to accept mobile learning. The key outcomes of this study suggest important determinants that can assist academic administrators and telecommunication service providers to enhance the adoption of M-learning with the help of suitable strategy.     

Designing learning experiences for outdoor hybrid learning spaces

With the support of various personal and institutional mobile technologies, numerous physical and virtual spaces can be turned into interesting and motivating hybrid learning settings. By its nature, outdoor mobile learning happens on the move is connected to specific locations and settings inviting learners to study their surroundings, inquire about natural phenomena and solve complex real-life problems. This poses challenges for teachers to design meaningful, contextualized and comprehensive learning experiences. The paper aims to explore what kind of mobile learning scenarios K-12 teachers create and what are the limitations and development perspectives of these scenarios. Content analysis of 25 location-based outdoor learning tracks with 465 questions and tasks was carried out. The results demonstrate that designing and implementing learning activities outside the safe, familiar classroom environment in new hybrid learning spaces is a challenging task for the teachers on many different levels. Taking Bloom’s revised taxonomy, types of contextualization and integrated learning models as frameworks for content analysis of the learning scenarios, the study shows that the teachers do not perceive the potential hybrid spaces and mobile technologies offer in order to design consistent learning experiences that emphasize higher order thinking levels, encompass contextual information and integrate knowledge from multiple disciplinary sources. The paper concludes that there is a need for more teacher training and systemic interventions into current teaching practices that encourage teachers to step outside of their existing teaching paradigms to acknowledge the pedagogical potential of hybrid learning spaces as well as the technological affordances.     

Personalised context-aware ubiquitous learning system for supporting effective English vocabulary learning

Because learning English is extremely popular in non-native English speaking countries, developing modern assisted-learning schemes that facilitate effective English learning is a critical issue in English-language education. Vocabulary learning is vital within English learning because vocabulary comprises the basic building blocks of English sentences. Therefore, numerous studies have attempted to increase the efficiency and performance of learning English vocabulary. ‘The situational learning approach’ proposed that ‘context’ is an important consideration in the language learning process and can enhance learner learning interest and efficiency. Restated, meaningful vocabulary learning occurs only when the learning process is integrated with social, cultural and life contexts. With the rapid development of context-awareness techniques, the development of context-aware mobile learning systems, which can support learners in learning without constraints of time or place via mobile devices and associate learning activities with real learning environment, enables the conduct of a novel context-aware ubiquitous learning mode to enhance English vocabulary learning. Accordingly, this study proposes a personalised context-aware ubiquitous learning system (PCULS) for learning English vocabulary based on learner location as detected by wireless positioning techniques, learning time, individual English vocabulary abilities and leisure time, enabling learners to adapt their learning content to effectively support English vocabulary learning in a school environment. Experimental results indicated that the accuracy of the employed wireless positioning scheme is over 92%, which is sufficient to help learners detect their locations. Additionally, the PCULS has been successfully implemented on PDA devices in a school environment to support effective situational English vocabulary learning. Experimental result indicates that the learning performance of learners who used personalised English vocabulary learning systems with context awareness (i.e. PCULS) was superior to learners who used personalised English vocabulary learning systems without context awareness.