Preparing Instructional Designers for Different Career Environments: A Case Study

The competency requirements, content, culture, and value systems of business and industry career environments can differ significantly from that of the higher education context where instructional design and technology (IDT) students receive their formal training. Therefore, faculty should consider how they might provide flexibility in their programs to allow IDT students to experience the contexts in which they choose to work following graduation. The article reports on the results of a case study of an exemplary IDT program identified through a national survey. The emphases and preparation practices of faculty in the case study program were noted to provide an example of how one program successfully prepares its graduates for a variety of career environments, and specifically for a business and industry environment. By studying the successes and challenges of specific programs, new or existing programs may gain ideas for building or re-working existing programs to better meet the needs of students desiring contextualized preparation for different career environments.     

Signaling text-picture relations in multimedia learning: A comprehensive meta-analysis

The signaling principle recommends emphasizing relevant aspects of a multimedia message by means of signals (e.g., color coding). We determined the effectiveness of signals that highlight correspondences between text and pictures as well as possible boundary conditions by means of a meta-analysis. To this end, 58 potentially relevant articles were identified in a comprehensive search. After rating the studies based on inclusion criteria and correcting for biases, 27 studies were included in the meta-analysis yielding 45 pairwise comparisons with N = 2464 participants. Domain-specific prior knowledge, pacing of the materials, pictorial format, mapping requirements, and distinctiveness of signals were coded as moderators. For transfer and comprehension performance a positive small-to-medium effect size (r = .17, 95% CI [0.11, 0.22]) favoring signaled multimedia material was found, which was moderated by prior knowledge. The findings support the effectiveness of the signaling principle in particular for learners with low prior knowledge.     

Examining pedagogical approaches and types of mathematics knowledge in educational games: A meta-analysis and critical review

This meta-analysis systematically reviewed math game studies published between 2010 and 2020 and evaluated them with respect to a) the type of pedogeological foundations inherent in games using Kebritchi and Hirumi's (2008) framework, b) the type of mathematics knowledge they facilitated (Bisanz & LeFevre, 1990; Rittle-Johnson, 2017), and c) their effect on math learning. Only 23 out of 26 studies used games based on a clear pedagogical approach and many studies measured multiple knowledge types. A direct instructional approach was most often used in games to target factual knowledge and resulted in an overall medium sized effect (g = 0.58), whereas procedural and conceptual knowledge were used by games using three types of pedagogical approach: experiential, discovery, and constructivist approaches but with mixed effect sizes. Overall, behaviorally oriented pedagogies are still dominant in math games and the effectiveness of each pedagogical approach varies as a function of knowledge type.     

Gender differences in identification of gifted youth and in gifted program participation: A meta-analysis

Although numerous studies have researched gender differences in gifted identification and program participation, the results of these studies are largely mixed. The goal of the present study was to synthesize data on gender differences in gifted identification and programming by combining data from multiple studies into a single meta-analysis. The combined results from 130 studies published between 1975 and 2011 indicated that boys were 1.19 times more likely than girls to be identified as gifted and included in gifted programs. Moderator analyses indicated that gender differences were particularly evident among pre-adolescents, within gifted summer programs, and for students who were identified as gifted using IQ scores and standardized tests. Recommendations for reducing gender bias include encouraging pre-adolescent girls to participate in gifted programs and using multiple assessment criteria to identify gifted students.     

A meta-analysis of comparative studies on Chinese and US students’ mathematics performance: Implications for mathematics education reform and research

US and China are reforming mathematics teaching by shifting from students’ attainment of facts and procedures toward development of competencies in reasoning, communication, connections, and problem solving, and application of these in real life contexts. Differences in students’ overall performance, curricula, and teachers’ knowledge and instruction between US and Eastern Asian countries are often used to support US reform with two obvious limitations. First, their performance has not been delineated into specific areas which raise questions about whether overall higher Asian mathematics performance over US is also evident in the specific US reform competencies. Second, Asians are often used as an indiscriminate group with inattention to different schooling and non-schooling factors between countries that might contribute differently to performances. This meta-analysis examines US and Chinese student mathematics performance studies and identifies the strengths and weaknesses in overall and specific competencies. It raises questions about theoretical assumptions, discusses limitations of research designs, and proposes research that may lead to a critical understanding of the quality of mathematics learning.     

What matters for student learning outcomes: A meta-analysis of studies exploring factors of effective teaching

Meta-analysis comprises a powerful tool for synthesizing prior research and empirically validating theoretical frameworks. Using this tool and the dynamic model of educational effectiveness as a guiding framework, in this paper we present a meta-analysis of 167 studies investigating the impact of teaching factors on student achievement. The factors of the dynamic model were found to be moderately associated with student achievement; in contrast, factors not included in the model were weakly associated with student learning, with the exception of two factors associated with constructivism. In discussing the study findings, we consider their theoretical, methodological, and practical implications.     

Beyond the dichotomy of teacher- versus student-focused education: A survey study on physics teachers' beliefs about the goals and pedagogy of physics education

This study explored the content and structure of physics teachers' beliefs on teaching and learning in general in relation to their domain-specific beliefs. A questionnaire was administered to secondary school teachers in physics (N = 126) in the Netherlands. The results showed that beliefs about the general and domain-specific goals of physics education formed an interrelated belief system consisting of content-oriented and student-oriented beliefs. Moreover, teachers agreed with the importance of both teacher-regulated and student-regulated learning. Therefore, research on teachers' beliefs should go beyond the often used dichotomy between ‘teacher-focused’ versus ‘student-focused’ education by focusing on the rationale behind ‘appropriate’ teaching behavior.