Using Opinion Mining as an educational analytic: An integrated strategy for the analysis of students’ feedback

The analysis of students’ feedback written in natural language has been poorly considered in academic institutions, looking more frequently at students’ ratings as a base to evaluate courses and instructors. Statistical text analyses offer the possibility of exploring text collections from a quantitative viewpoint. Particularly interesting is Opinion Mining (OM), a family of techniques at the crossroads of Statistics, Linguistics and Computer Science. OM allows evaluating the sentiment of individual opinions, highlighting their semantic orientation. In an educational context, this approach allows processing students’ comments and creating powerful analytics. This paper aims at introducing readers to OM, presenting a strategy to compute the sentiment polarity of students’ comments. After explaining the rationale of the proposal and its mathematical formalisation, a toy example is presented to show how it works in practice. A discussion about theoretical and empirical implications offers some hints about its potentiality in a learning environment.     

Q‐methodology in communication science: An introduction

Q‐methodology, traditionally a tool for phenomenological analysis, single‐subject or small sample research, and typological analysis, has potential for research in human communication. Unfortunately, q‐techniques have often been neglected or misunderstood by main‐stream social scientists. This article presents basic information regarding the construction of q‐sorts, discusses methods for analyzing q‐sort data in a variety of research contexts, and identifies resources which may be consulted by those wishing to learn more about the method.     

An adaptive finite element procedure for crack propagation analysis

INTRODUCTION The finite element method (FEM) has proved to be very well suited for the study of fracture mechanics. Nevertheless, modelling the propagation of a crack through a finite element mesh turns out to be difficult because of the modification of the mesh topology. Use of crack propagation laws based on stress inten-sity factor range is the most successful engineering application of fracture mechanics. The stress intensity factors are a very important parameter in fracture analys…     

An analysis of teachers’ self-reported competencies for teaching metacognition

For successful reading experiences in native and/or foreign/second language, individuals need to benefit from not only cognitive strategies but also metacognitive strategies. Although research found reading comprehension and performance increase following metacognitive trainings, such findings may not transfer into mainstream classrooms as easily for several reasons. This study, therefore, aimed to disseminate the phenomenon of teaching metacognition with an emphasis on teacher’s instrumental role during classroom learning. More specifically, it investigated language instructors’ metacognition and their self-reported competencies for teaching metacognition. It also examined whether and how self-reported competencies changed following a professional development (PD) module of teaching for metacognition. Utilising Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and think aloud protocols for instructional planning, this study found most participants were either highly metacognitive or metacognitive individuals. It was also found that most participants were initially not knowledgeable about and/or competent in teaching metacognition. Following PD, highly metacognitive teachers developed authentic lesson plans manifesting metacognition instruction while metacognitive teachers adopted similar instructional designs presented during the PD. Besides, half of the participants appreciated teaching metacognitively following the PD. Finally, under the light of these findings, future research and policy adjustments were proposed.     

An analysis of prospective teachers’ knowledge for constructing concept maps

Background: Literature contends that a teacher’s knowledge of concept map-based tasks influence how their students perceive the task and execute the creation of acceptable concept maps. Teachers who are skilled concept mappers are able to (1) understand and apply the operational terms to construct a hierarchical/non-hierarchical concept map; (2) identify the legitimacy of the constructed concept map by verifying its graphical structure and its educational utility; and (3) determine the inherent ‘good’ and ‘poor’ qualities of the resulting graphical structure to reiterate the ‘good’ qualities and to coach and provide feedback to alleviate ‘poor’ qualities.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of prospective teachers’ knowledge underpinning the technique used to construct concept maps and thus, explicate their facility to construct concept maps.

Sample, Design and Methods: Data consisted of 200 concept maps constructed by prospective teachers in an elementary science methods course.

Results: Analysis revealed that the prospective teachers had predominantly constructed either hierarchical and/or non-hierarchical concept maps. It is likely that their maps reflect the teaching that they themselves would have experienced in their science classrooms during their own education. Additionally, most of these concepts maps only contained the root concept and subordinate concepts and lacked directional linking lines, linking phrases, labelled lines and propositions.

Conclusions: We argue that teacher educators need to assess their prospective teachers’ understanding of concept mapping in relation to the legitimacy (the nature and quality) of the end-products (graphical structures) of such practices. Prospective teachers also need to understand the educational utility of concept mapping in terms of how these end-products impact and/or effectuate learning.     

Hierarchical task analysis ‐ An approach for diagnosing students’ conceptual difficulties

Pupils’ conceptual difficulties in scientific problem‐solving are examined on the basis of their performance on complex tasks and on the simple tasks of which the complex tasks are composed. A theoretical analysis reveals that identical errors on a complex task are not necessarily due to the same errors on the associated component tasks. This is illustrated by reference to actual research findings. The educational implications of this finding are discussed.     

An analysis of different representations for vectors and planes in ℝ3

The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the difficulties faced by students when working with different representations of vectors, planes and their intersections in \(\mathbb {R}^{3}\). Duval’s theoretical framework on semiotic representations is used to design a set of evaluating activities, and later to analyze student work. The analysis covers three groups of undergraduate students taking introductory courses in linear algebra. Different types of treatments and conversions are required to solve the activities. One important result shows that, once students choose a register to solve a task, they seldom make transformations between different registers, even though this facilitates solving the task at hand. Identifying these difficulties for particular transformations may help teachers design specific activities to promote students cognitive flexibility between representation registers.     

An analysis of the use of autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning

The currency of intercultural education has risen worldwide in response to increased diversity within societies resulting from migration and global flows of populations. As intercultural education becomes a core responsibility of schooling, critical, detailed analysis of pedagogies for teachers’ own intercultural learning is largely absent in education research, in contrast to attention to developing students’ intercultural capabilities and theoretical and policy analyses. In beginning to address this limitation, this article offers a critical, reflexive analysis of our use and the efficacy of using autobiographical narrative for teachers’ intercultural learning. Framing theories include interculturality, autobiographical narratives for teachers’ professional learning, reflexivity, and the effects of silence and silencing in relation to diversity and intercultural relations in schools. Three instances of teacher autobiographical narrative elicited as part of a large-scale, longitudinal study of intercultural education in Australian schools are deconstructed to elucidate their explicit and hidden meanings and effects. The analysis reveals that while autobiographical narrative has productive potential as a strategy for stimulating teacher reflexivity about cultural identities and intercultural relations, it also contains hidden dangers and traps that caution against viewing it as a pedagogical cure-all in the development of teachers’ intercultural knowledge and skills.     

Finding Out How They Find It Out: An empirical analysis of inquiry learners’ need for support

Inquiry learning environments increasingly incorporate modelling facilities for students to articulate their research hypotheses and (acquired) domain knowledge. This study compared performance success and scientific reasoning of university students with high prior knowledge (n = 11), students from senior high‐school (n = 10), and junior high‐school (n = 10) with intermediate and low prior knowledge, respectively, in order to reveal domain novices’ need for support in such environments. Results indicated that the scientific reasoning of both groups of high‐school students was comparable to that of the experts. As high‐school students achieved significantly lower performance success scores, their expert‐like behaviour was rather ineffective; qualitative analyses substantiated this conclusion. Based on these findings, implications for supporting domain novices in inquiry learning environments are advanced.     

A symposium on “speech act theory in mainstream communication research”: An introduction

The referential, sequential, and inferential dimensions of discourse are explicated and discussed in order to obtain a vantage point from which to view the contributions of speech‐act theory to our understanding of human communication processes. A preview is then provided of four papers, each of which explores the intersection of two or more of these dimensions in order to enrich our understanding of speech‐act theory.     

Why do teachers refer pupils for special education? An analysis of referral records

Abstract

We studied the referral for special education records of children and youth to identify the problems for which referrers said pupils needed help. Coders examined 382 forms used by two school systems and recorded demographic information and referrers' statements describing individual pupils' difficulties. We found that (a) 69% of the referrals were for boys, (b) regular classroom teachers alone initiated 74% of the referrals and contributed to another 5%, and (c) over two‐thirds of students referred were in earlier grade levels, particularly kindergarten (16%), first (26%), second (15%), or third grade (11%). Problems most likely to be described on referral forms were general academic problems (found on 35% of referrals), reading problems (31%), and attention problems (23%) other problems such as fearfulness (2%), visual‐perceptual difficulties (1%), and depression (1%) were rarely included. Factor analysis of the referral reasons revealed five common types of referrals, some of which interacted with gender and level of students. The factors described problems in written language, externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, overactivity, and sensory problems. The results of this study should help focus preservice and inservice preparation of teachers in addressing problems that are likely to cause pupils to be referred. In addition, combined with other findings, the results indicate regular education teachers' level of tolerance for pupils' problems.     

An innovative consensus map-embedded collaborative learning system for ER diagram learning: sequential analysis of students’ learning achievements

Although computer-supported collaborative learning has been successfully applied in educational settings to improve group learning performance, most such systems still lack effective strategies for knowledge representation which could help reduce discussion time. In this study, concept mapping, already applied as a tool to help visualize and organize existing or newly learned knowledge, is incorporated to address this problem in a newly developed concept map and computer-supported collaborative learning system (CMCLS). It was designed as a quasi-experiment study and was carried out with 77 university students. The system was first used by the groups of students to illustrate their knowledge and achieve consensus during a learning activity, after which their performance and feelings of satisfaction with this innovative approach were evaluated. Patterns of learning within the proposed framework were explored. The learning behaviors, including the actions and interactions with peers of the participants during the learning activity were recorded. Finally, lag-sequential analysis was used to compare the interactions and the differences in the behavior patterns of the two groups, one using the newly developed CMCLS consensus map-embedded approach and a control group which did not use this approach. The results showed significant improvement in the learning achievement of students using the novel approach, as well as a higher degree of perceived usefulness and satisfaction. The novel consensus map-embedded approach was useful for knowledge construction and for assisting with integration of the team members’ results to produce the final ER diagram.     

Non-participation in guidance: An opportunity for development?

This article discusses how new opportunities for guidance can emerge from an analysis of the interplay between the participation (or lack of participation) of the individuals in career guidance, and the career guidance practitioner’s response. The article suggests critical psychology as a framework for career guidance research and presents the analytical categories of “participation” and “conduct of everyday life” as means to analyse the dialectical relationship between participant and structure, as well as individual and society. Finally, it is argued that flexible career practices that adapt to the needs of participants have the potential effect of greater social justice.     

Students’ interests for personalized learning: an analysis guide

The lack of alignment between, on the one hand, what schools seek to teach and, on the other, the students’ interests and learning objectives is leading to increasing numbers of students who are unable to derive meaning from school activities. Personalized learning strategies represent one of the most powerful ways to help students attribute meaning and personal value to their learning. This paper has two interrelated objectives. The first is to present a guide to the analysis of educational practices that work with and from students’ interests. This tool makes it possible to identify the potential of practices to reinforce and promote the meaning and personal value that students attach to their school learning. The guide is structured around three large blocks (personalization strategies, conceptions of interests, and design and development of practices), which describe the dimensions, subdimensions, questions, and levels for the analysis. The second objective is to illustrate use of the guide by analyzing two practices designed and implemented in primary school classrooms, characterized by a focus on students’ learning interests. The paper concludes by highlighting the main contributions of the guide presented, identifying some limitations, and pointing to future lines of research.

     

'Education for the Environment: A critique'—an analysis

This article analyses Education for the environment: a critique' (Jickling & Spork, 1998). It illustrates ways in which the critique is a partial analysis of education for the environment. Thus, the article addresses Jickling and Spork's concern that education for the environment is a universalising discourse that seeks to marginalise other approaches. It does this by showing how it may be Jickling and Spork's lack of reflexivity over their own ideology of education which leads them to construct such a partial interpretation of education for the environment. This article also argues that the critical pedagogy of education for the environment provides a professionally-ethical way of teaching which contrasts with the allegations of indoctrination in the critique. The article nevertheless reflects an appreciation of the opportunity to engage constructively with contesting ideas in environmental education and concludes with suggestions for further avenues of inquiry for those wishing to engage in discourse analysis in order to deconstruct and, hopefully, reconstruct, education for and also in/through, with and about the environment.     

Anger Management Using a Cognitive‐behavioural Approach for Children with Special Education Needs: A literature review and meta‐analysis

This review examines the use of a cognitive‐behavioural approach to anger management in children with special needs in community settings. Eighteen experimental studies involving a total of 408 children were located. The participants were mainly of high school age, with an IQ above 80, and with behavioural or emotional disorders. A moderate effect was observed for improvement in the three dimensions of anger: behaviour, cognition and emotion – although conclusions need to be very tentative. The interventions employed varied greatly in their characteristics and there were concerns about the quality of many studies. Further research is needed to investigate the interaction between intervention features and participant characteristics.     

Relations between goals,self‐efficacy,critical thinking and deep processing strategies: a path analysis

Research exploring students’ academic learning has recently amalgamated different motivational theories within one conceptual framework. The inclusion of achievement goals, self‐efficacy, deep processing and critical thinking has been cited in a number of studies. This article discusses two empirical studies that examined these four theoretical orientations from both cross‐sectional (N = 279 participants) and longitudinal (N = 264 participants) perspectives. In particular, achievement goals are hypothesised to exert direct and indirect effects on academic performance via self‐efficacy, study processing strategies and critical thinking. Path analysis was used to test and analyse the hypothesised conceptual models. Results from SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.72 provided good support for the hypothesised structural relationships. Students’ academic performance outcomes, for example, are determined directly by deep processing and work‐avoidance goals. Results from Study 2 indicate mastery goals and self‐efficacy, mastery goals and critical thinking and deep processing and critical thinking operate in a reciprocal manner. In general, the evidence established from both studies contributes theoretically and methodologically.     

Variation in the conduct and the quality of self‐evaluations: a multi‐level path analysis

While self‐evaluation leads to valuable results in some schools, it appears that in other schools this is true only to a lesser extent or not at all. This raises the question of how differences in the results of self‐evaluations can be explained. This study looks at to what extent the results of self‐evaluation are determined by the way in which self‐evaluation is conducted, by characteristics relating to the general functioning of the school and by the support which schools enjoy. One thousand seven hundred and eighty‐six school principals and team members from 96 schools (primary and secondary) were surveyed by means of a written questionnaire. The data collected were then analysed using multi‐level structural equation modelling. The results provide strong empirical evidence that “attitude with regard to self‐evaluation”, “self‐evaluation as a policy action” and “self‐evaluation as an act of research” are powerful predictors of the quality of self‐evaluations.