Collaboration modality, cognitive load, and science inquiry learning in virtual inquiry environments

Educational multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have been shown to be effective platforms for situated science inquiry curricula. While researchers find MUVEs to be supportive of collaborative scientific inquiry processes, the complex mix of multi-modal messages present in MUVEs can lead to cognitive overload, with learners unable to effectively process the rich information encountered in virtual space. In this study, we investigated the effect of communication modality on cognitive load and science inquiry learning in students completing a science inquiry curriculum in an educational MUVE. Seventy-eight undergraduate education majors from a large southwestern university participated in this control-treatment study. Significant positive results were found for reducing cognitive load for participants communicating through voice-based chat, although this reduction was not found to influence learning outcomes. We conclude that use of voice-based communication can successfully reduce cognitive load in MUVE-based inquiry curricula.     

Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education

Mobile technologies have a huge potential to transform education provided these technologies are designed and implemented in such a way that they are relevant to the social and cultural context of learning. Clearly, the application, implementation, and design of mobile technology in the global educational context pose technological and socio-cultural challenges. Specifically, technology tools and applications that are familiar in developed nations may pose unique challenges in developing countries, so ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one technology for all contexts’ does not practically work. Therefore, the authors provide case studies focusing on the pedagogical benefits of mobile technologies when used as educational tools. Ideally, this article is intended to stimulate reflections on the subject of m-learning as well as the integration of mobile technologies in education.     

移动网络即时协作学习平台关键技术研究

移动学习平台是促进移动学习快速发展的重要因素,无线网络技术和移动通信技术及其相关移动终端设备的快速普及,使得基于有线网络和个人计算机的网络学习平台已不能满足当前学习者的实际需求.从无线移动网络环境下学习者的实际要求出发,研究具有移动Web即时通信、资源实时移动共享等功能的移动网络即时协作学习平台的体系机构和系统功能,探究实现该系统平台的关键技术,以便为移动学习者提供一种支持即时协作交流、实时共享资源与知识经验的新型移动网络即时协作学习平台.     

中学研究性学习与信息技术整合研究

一、研究的意义与预期目标 （一）研究的意义 中学研究性学习是一门蕴含着教育观念、教与学方式深刻变革的崭新的课程，其宗旨是使学生获得亲身参与探索活动的体验，提高发现问题和解决问题的能力，培养收集、分析和利用信息的能力及科学态度和科学道德，学会合作与分享，增强社会责任心和使命感。研究性学习强凋学生在开放情境中通过多种渠道主动地获取知识，具有自主性、开放性和发展性的特征。     

Concept maps as assessment in science inquiry learning - a report of methodology

Increasing availability of technologies, such as CD ROMs and the World Wide Web, in schools means that more teachers will have the potential to implement student-centred, inquiry-based approaches to learning. Assessing what each student knows in a broad subject area, such as science, is difficult. Assessing students' understanding in circumstances where each student may pursue different topics of study, where there is no way to predict in advance what those topics of study will be and where the possible topics of study include natural phenomena which are only beginning to be studied by professional scientists, is even more difficult. The authors recently faced such a challenge. To meet the challenge, the authors chose to assess student learning using an open-ended concept map activity combined with a rubric which extracts quantitative information about the quality of understanding from each map. This article describes the method the authors developed, including tests of reliability and validity.     

Metacognitive and multimedia support of experiments in inquiry learning for science teacher preparation

ABSTRACT

Promoting preservice science teachers’ experimentation competency is required to provide a basis for meaningful learning through experiments in schools. However, preservice teachers show difficulties when experimenting. Previous research revealed that cognitive scaffolding promotes experimentation competency by structuring the learning process, while metacognitive and multimedia support enhance reflection. However, these support measures have not yet been tested in combination. Therefore, we decided to use cognitive scaffolding to support students’ experimental achievements and supplement it by metacognitive and multimedia scaffolds in the experimental groups. Our research question is to what extent supplementing cognitive support by metacognitive and multimedia scaffolding further promotes experimentation competency. The intervention has been applied in a two-factorial design to a two-month experimental course for 63 biology teacher students in their first bachelor year. Pre-post-test measured experimentation competency in a performance assessment. Preservice teachers worked in groups of four. Therefore, measurement took place at group level (N?=?16). Independent observers rated preservice teachers’ group performance qualitatively on a theory-based system of categories. Afterwards, experimentation competency levels led to quantitative frequency analysis. The results reveal differing gains in experimentation competency but contrary to our hypotheses. Implications of combining scaffolding measures on promoting experimentation competency are discussed.     

Investigating the effectiveness of a learning activity supported by a mobile multimedia learning system to enhance autonomous EFL learning in authentic contexts

A learning activity supported by a mobile multimedia learning system (MMLS) was designed in this study. We aimed to test the effectiveness of the learning activity to enhance autonomous language learning in quasi-experimental Study 1 using a pretest/posttest design. Two groups participated in the learning activity: the students in a control group (n = 27) completed the activity using traditional approach whereas the students in an experimental group (n = 26) completed the activity using MMLS. The results of Study 1 showed that the experimental students outperformed their counterparts on the post-test (F = 29.602, p < 0.005, partial eta-squared = 0.372). In a non-experimental Study 2, the experimental students (n = 26) were assigned two learning tasks, the first task was completed individually and the second task in collaboration. We aimed to investigate which learning approach to complete tasks (i.e. individual vs. collaborative) enhances learning performance better by comparing students’ scores on two tasks. In addition, we explored students’ perceptions towards MMLS. The results of Study 2 showed that the students had better learning performance when they completed tasks in collaboration than individually. The results also showed that the students had high perceptions towards MMLS. Based on our results, we make suggestions and provide directions for future research.     

Reconceptualising inquiry in science education

Decades of discussion and debate about how science is most effectively taught and learned have resulted in a number of similar but competing inquiry models. These aim to develop students learning of science through approaches which reflect the authenticity of science as practiced by professional scientists while being practical and manageable within the school context. This paper offers a collection of our current reflections and suggestions concerning inquiry and its place in science education. We suggest that many of the current models of inquiry are too limited in their vision concerning themselves, almost exclusively, with producing a scaffold which reduces the complex process of inquiry into an algorithmic approach based around a sequence of relatively simple steps. We argue that this restricts students’ experience of authentic inquiry to make classroom management and assessment procedures easier. We then speculate that a more integrated approach is required through an alternative inquiry model that depends on three dimensions (conceptual, procedural and personal) and we propose that it will be more likely to promote effective learning and a willingness to engage in inquiry across all facets of a students’ school career and beyond.     

Learning with collaborative inquiry: a science learning environment for secondary students

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students’ learning processes. To address this, the article presents a study of science learning in a computer-supported learning environment called Collaborative Science Inquiry (CSI), which integrates guided inquiry principles for activity design, employs modelling and visualisation tools for promoting conceptual understanding and incorporates key computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) elements for enabling students’ collaboration. With the aim of understanding the process of students’ conceptual changes supported by the CSI learning environment as used in a secondary school, data on students’ test achievements, responses to learning tasks and peer discussions in collaboration were collected, analysed and discussed. The results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis indicated that guided inquiry coupled with CSCL elements facilitated by the CSI system can engage students in inquiry activities and promote their conceptual understanding in a progressive way.     

The effects of computer-supported self-regulation in science inquiry on learning outcomes,learning processes,and self-efficacy

Recently, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of technology-enhanced science inquiry activities. To improve students’ self-regulation and assist them in controlling their own learning pace through inquiry activities, in this study, a self-regulated science inquiry approach was developed to assist them in organizing information from their real-world exploration. A quasi-experimental design was conducted in an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the students’ performance using the proposed learning approach. One class assigned as the treatment group learned with the self-regulated science inquiry approach, while the other class assigned as the control group learned with the conventional science inquiry approach. The students’ learning achievement, tendency of information help seeking, tendency of self-regulation, and self-efficacy were evaluated. The results of the study revealed that the self-regulated science inquiry approach improved the students’ learning achievement, especially for those students with higher self-regulation. In addition, the students who conducted inquiry with the self-regulated learning strategy increased their tendency of information help seeking, self-efficacy, and several aspects of self-regulation, including time management, help seeking, and self-evaluation. Accordingly, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the self-regulated learning strategy, an approach with high learner control, in terms of improving students’ learning achievement and their self-regulation.     

Digital curation for promoting personalized learning: A study of secondary-school science students’ learning experiences

Abstract

The article presents a research study that examined the ways in which digital curation promotes personalized learning, as well as the students’ experiences of this learning process. The study was conducted in the context of K-12 education. Participants spent three months on a project that included curating a personalized digital collection. The study was conducted using a phenomenological qualitative approach for the collection and processing of data. Findings demonstrate that digital curation provides a productive learning activity that supports significant personalized, emotional, and cognitive learning experiences, enabling the curator to construct a personal subject ontology.     

Open educational resources in support of science learning: tools for inquiry and observation

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the formal/informal spaces for inquiry learning. This is contrasted with an example of the use of free tools and community development for observation of scientific phenomena supported by open educational resources (OER) with a citizen science perspective. The article provides an assessment of how the availability of the resources has a potential for shaping the communities using OER for science learning and a discussion of the means of supporting inquiry.     

Problem-based learning supported by semantic techniques

Problem-based learning has been applied over the last three decades to a diverse range of learning environments. In this educational approach, different problems are posed to the learners so that they can develop different solutions while learning about the problem domain. When applied to conceptual modelling, and particularly to Qualitative Reasoning, the solutions to problems are models that represent the behaviour of a dynamic system. The learner's task then is to bridge the gap between their initial model, as their first attempt to represent the system, and the target models that provide solutions to that problem. We propose the use of semantic technologies and resources to help in bridging that gap by providing links to terminology and formal definitions, and matching techniques to allow learners to benefit from existing models.     

Making inquiry-based science learning visible: the influence of CVS and cognitive skills on content knowledge learning in guided inquiry

ABSTRACT

Many science curricula and standards emphasise that students should learn both scientific knowledge and the skills associated with the construction of this knowledge. One way to achieve this goal is to use inquiry-learning activities that embed the use of science process skills. We investigated the influence of scientific reasoning skills (i.e. conceptual and procedural knowledge of the control-of-variables strategy) on students’ conceptual learning gains in physics during an inquiry-learning activity. Eighth graders (n?=?189) answered research questions about variables that influence the force of electromagnets and the brightness of light bulbs by designing, running, and interpreting experiments. We measured knowledge of electricity and electromagnets, scientific reasoning skills, and cognitive skills (analogical reasoning and reading ability). Using structural equation modelling we found no direct effects of cognitive skills on students’ content knowledge learning gains; however, there were direct effects of scientific reasoning skills on content knowledge learning gains. Our results show that cognitive skills are not sufficient; students require specific scientific reasoning skills to learn science content from inquiry activities. Furthermore, our findings illustrate that what students learn during guided inquiry activities becomes visible when we examine both the skills used during inquiry learning and the process of knowledge construction. The implications of these findings for science teaching and research are discussed.     

Student leadership in small group science inquiry

Background: Science educators have sought to structure collaborative inquiry learning through the assignment of static group roles. This structural approach to student grouping oversimplifies the complexities of peer collaboration and overlooks the highly dynamic nature of group activity.

Purpose: This study addresses this issue of oversimplification of group dynamics by examining the social leadership structures that emerge in small student groups during science inquiry.

Sample: Two small student groups investigating the burning of a candle under a jar participated in this study.

Design and method: We used a mixed-method research approach that combined computational discourse analysis (computational quantification of social aspects of small group discussions) with microethnography (qualitative, in-depth examination of group discussions).

Results: While in one group social leadership was decentralized (i.e., students shared control over topics and tasks), the second group was dominated by a male student (centralized social leadership). Further, decentralized social leadership was found to be paralleled by higher levels of student cognitive engagement.

Conclusions: It is argued that computational discourse analysis can provide science educators with a powerful means of developing pedagogical models of collaborative science learning that take into account the emergent nature of group structures and highly fluid nature of student collaboration.