Out of school: a phenomenological exploration of extended non-attendance

The concept of “extended non-attendance” (“school phobia” or “school refusal”) was distinguished from truancy early in the twentieth century, and refers to children who fear school and avoid attending. Despite much subsequent research, outcomes for those affected remain poor, and their voices remain largely absent from the evidence base. The current study sought to address this by examining the experiences of four secondary-age children with extended attendance difficulties. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews conducted in participants’ homes, subsequently analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Although participants differed markedly in their perception of the causes of their non-attendance, their support experiences appear remarkably similar. Emergent themes include being disbelieved, experiencing fragmented support, and feeling blamed and punished. Implications for practitioners include the importance of ensuring early intervention, the need to consider the individual child, and the importance of making sure that local intervention practices are informed by the evidence base.     

How to guide learners' processing of multimedia lessons with pedagogical agents

Two experiments examined the effects of a pedagogical agent's (PA's) pointing gestures, eye gaze, and eye contact on learning processes (measured by learners' eye fixations on relevant elements) and learning outcomes (as measured by retention and transfer test scores) with a multimedia lesson on neural transmission. In Experiment 1, having the PA look at and point to relevant elements as she lectured led to more eye fixations on the relevant portion of the graphic and better retention and transfer test scores. Keeping eye contact with learners tended to improve retention test scores and increased their eye fixations on relevant elements when the PA also looked at and pointed to the graphic. In Experiment 2, the PA's pointing gestures as a stand-alone feature caused better retention test scores and more fixations on relevant elements of the graphic, but eye gaze direction did not. These findings help extend the embodiment principle.     

Social engagement in a diversifying campus: a phenomenological exploration

With more non-local (Mainland China and overseas) students admitted into the universities of Hong Kong, the student population on campus is becoming much more diversified. This study was a phenomenological inquiry into the social engagement experiences of local and non-local Chinese students in their first year at a university in Hong Kong. Qualitative data was obtained from 10 focus groups. The findings suggested that the majority of the students in the study were active in social engagement and most achieved a sense of belonging to the university or its sub-communities. The culture in student communities played an important role in students' social engagement. It pushed students to become intensively involved in out-of-class activities and challenged them to reflect on the direction in which they would carry this historical legacy forward in the diversifying campus.     

从"说服"到"启发":教育学研究的两种范式

传统教育写作和教育学的诗化写作是教育学研究的两种范式，传统教育写作追求“以理服人”，“解决”他人的问题，教育学的诗化写作追求“以思启人”，意在唤起问题。从“说服”到“启发”，不仅意味着教育学话语品质的转向，也意味着教育学生存方式的转向。     

Complex positioning: teachers as agents of curricular and pedagogical reform

We analyse two narratives of teacher‐facilitator teams producing elementary science curricula and disseminating them to their peers. We draw on these stories to interpret how teacher‐facilitators position themselves with respect to other educators (e.g. peer teachers and development‐team members), to real and imagined students and parents, to knowing and learning science, and to pedagogical practices and texts. We read these acts of positioning relationally and responsively. Teacher‐facilitators position themselves and their work in highly complex ways to multiple political and social others. These multiple positions raise a range of anxieties and questions for the teacher‐facilitators and shape their curricular and leadership roles. Our purpose is, first, to tease out these complexities of positioning and subjectivity, and second, to consider how teachers construct their roles as pedagogical and curricular leaders among their peers. This analysis illuminates thinking about how reform is enacted in schools and how leadership roles are constructed.     

Mathematical induction: A pedagogical discussion

It is observed that many students have difficulty in producing correct proofs by the method of mathematical induction. The notion of a correct proof by this method is analysed mathematically. Subsequently, the topic is analysed into behavioural skills and subjected to a conceptual analysis. Common misconception of induction are considered, with recommendations for their remediation. Finally, criteria for the analysis and evaluation of textbook treatments of induction are evolved and applied to a selection of texts.     

Courseware development with animated pedagogical agents in learning system to improve learning motivation

The addition of animated pedagogical agents (APAs) in computer-assisted learning (CAL) systems could successfully enhance students' learning motivation and engagement in learning activities. Conventionally, the APA incorporated multimedia materials are constructed through the cooperation of teachers and software programmers. However, the thinking and technical gap between two roles, a concept/content provider (teacher) and an implementer (software programmer), may lead to the concept distortion and loss in the final teaching material implementations. This often results in preventing a teacher from preparing his or her own APA-based multimedia learning systems. This study aims to develop a courseware to facilitate the CAL through the combination of the two roles into a single one and then teachers can use it freely by themselves. The courseware can help teachers to develop appropriate multimedia instructional materials incorporating APAs, which attracts students' attention and enhances their interest in learning. Furthermore, in this study two separate trial experiments were conducted to measure the teachers' satisfaction with the courseware and students' learning motivation after using APA-based multimedia learning systems. The results show that the participating teachers were satisfied with the courseware and would like to apply it in their instruction. Moreover, the participating students were strongly motivated by the customized APA-based multimedia learning systems. Therefore, the proposed courseware could give teachers a good opportunity to add pedagogical value to the curriculum, so that students' learning interest and motivation could be enhanced.     

对话与倾听：教学理论研究的“合法化”理路

作为一个重要的学术术语,“对话”既是理解教学理论研究基础的理论取向,也是探索教学理论研究“合法化”的重要研究方法。“对话”是两大知识群体——教学理论研究与教学实践工作的“对话”。“对话”构成了教学理论研究的理论背景与平台,敞开了教学理论或教学知识“合法化”的本质性状况。“对话”的达成有赖于教学理论研究的“倾听”。在当前的情况下,“倾听”可使教学理论氤氲化生出新的生命力与能量。     

The digital history and pedagogy project: Creating an interpretative/pedagogical historical website

The Digital History and Pedagogy Project (DHPP) is an interpretive/pedagogical collection of Web-based historical resources designed for use in inquiry-based learning in high school and university classrooms. It has been created by faculty and graduate students at a large urban college of education. This paper provides a rationale for the project rooted in current literature; presents a theoretical framework for this and other similar projects; and describes five current digital historical resources (DHRs) within the context of our framework.     

Expanding preservice teachers' metacognitive awareness of instructional planning through pedagogical agents

In this experimental study, 135 preservice teachers developed an instructional plan for a case study within the Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively (MIMIC) computer-based environment. Three-dimensional, animated pedagogical agents, representing constructivist and instructivist approaches to instructional planning, served as instructional mentors within the environment and were available to provide advisements. The research design consisted of two factors, (a) instructivist agent (present, absent) and (b) constructivist agent (present, absent), with two primary groups of dependent measures, (a) metacognitive awareness, and (b) attitude. Regarding metacognitive awareness, when the constructivist agent was present, participants tended to report a change in their perspective of instructional planning, reflected less on their thinking, and developed instructional plans rated as more constructivist in underlying pedagogy. Regarding attitude, when the instructivist agent was present, participants reported a more negative disposition regarding instructional planning. Results are discussed in terms of the impact on teaching instructional planning to preservice teachers.     

数字化金融实验室的构建与探讨

数字化金融实验室是集金融业务教学、教师课题研发、学生模拟金融业务操作等功能于一体的高校一流金融专业综合实验室。从构建方案、金融软件平台、现实效应等方面探讨了数字化金融实验室。     

Teacher pedagogical constructions: a reconfiguration of pedagogical content knowledge

A brief review of the history of pedagogical content knowledge reveals various definitions and conceptualizations of the construct, as well as some conceptual problems. A new conceptualization—teacher pedagogical constructions—is offered to address some of the problems associated with PCK. Seven assertions that comprise the new conceptualization are presented, explained and defended. These are: (1) PCK represents personal and private knowledge; (2) PCK is a collection of basic units called teacher pedagogical constructions; (3) teacher pedagogical constructions result mainly from planning, but also from the interactive and post‐active phases of teaching; (4) pedagogical constructions result from an inventive process that is influenced by the interaction of knowledge and beliefs from different categories; (5) pedagogical constructions constitute both a generalized event‐based and a story‐based kind of memory; (6) pedagogical constructions are topic specific; and (7) pedagogical constructions are (or should ideally be) labeled in multiple interesting ways that connect them to other categories and subcategories of teacher knowledge and beliefs. The proposed definition results from a reconceptualization of the nature of PCK as originally proposed, taking the results of major later studies and conceptualizations of PCK into consideration, appropriating new ideas about the structure of memory, and undertaking a reanalysis and presentation of data from a previous study. The article calls for viewing PCK as neither a subcategory of subject matter (subject matter knowledge for teaching) nor as a general generic form of knowledge. It presents a view of PCK as a collection of teacher professional constructions, as a form of knowledge that preserves the planning and wisdom of practice that the teacher acquires when repeatedly teaching a certain topic. Viewing PCK as a collection of TPCs, more precisely defining it, clarifying its relations to other knowledge and beliefs entities, and speculating about its development should facilitate future investigations of PCK.     

Students’ choice of animated pedagogical agents in science learning: A test of the similarity-attraction hypothesis on gender and ethnicity

College students learned about science with a multimedia program. One group (choice or C) chose to learn with or without an animated pedagogical agent (APA) representing a male or female of five different ethnicities. Another group (no-choice or NC) was assigned an APA by the system. All participants in C group chose to learn with APAs and students of color chose significantly more same-ethnicity APAs than White American students. A significant interaction between choice and ethnic similarity factors revealed that group C produced lower retention, transfer, and program ratings when learning with same-ethnicity rather than different-ethnicity APAs. Results support an interference hypothesis for students who choose to learn with same-ethnicity APAs.     

高校数字化校园建设的现状与探索

随着互联网应用的普及以及各高校规模的扩张,目前各高校都在大力建设数字化校园.本文首先分析了数字化校园建设中存在的问题,然后提出了"以人为本"的数字化校园建设目标并对各应用系统进行了划分与介绍,最后对数字化校园的科学发展进行了探讨.     

Leading sustainable pedagogical reform with technology for student-centred learning: A complexity perspective

The literature on school improvement is littered with sombre reports of how ICT-mediated innovations have failed to create impact on teaching and learning. Even when evidence-based successes are palpable, they are sporadic and rarely sustainable. Against the backdrop of the litany of such studies, this paper reports the case of a primary school in Singapore that has a decade-long experience in integrating, growing and sustaining ICT-mediated innovations. By distilling the influences underpinning its integration, the article aims to make a contribution to the theorisation of educational leadership situated in the context of technology-mediated reform for student-centred learning. Using a complexity lens, this paper looks at how school leaders, together with other autonomous actors in its ecological system, foster the favourable conditions for sustainable technology-mediated pedagogical reform. Data of the study are drawn from interviews, observations of lessons, fieldtrips and professional development meetings as well as document analysis. Based on the findings, a complexity-informed model for technology-mediated reform is devised and its implications discussed. They include the need to cultivate the following within and across the subsystems of the school: (a) ecological awareness; (b) collective reflexivity on practices and implementations; (c) creating alignment; and (d) capacity to forge ecological coherence.     

Student use of animated pedagogical agents in a middle school science inquiry program

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) have the potential to provide one‐on‐one, just‐in‐time instruction, guidance or mentoring in classrooms where such individualized human interactions may be infeasible. Much current APA research focuses on a wide range of design variables tested with small samples or in laboratory settings, while overlooking important practical issues relating to large‐scale, school‐based implementations. The present study provides an early step in addressing this gap by investigating the patterns, affordances and challenges of sustained classroom use of APAs. During a 15‐class‐period science curriculum, middle school students in the treatment groups (n_{Dr C‐1} = 191; n_{Dr C‐2} = 181) had uninterrupted classroom access to one of the two APAs, while control group students (n = 149) completed the same curriculum without APA access. Usage patterns indicate that students accessed the APAs on a fluctuating, “as needed,” basis corresponding to the introductory, information‐gathering, and synthesis and reporting segments of the curriculum. Survey results revealed no statistically significant difference in student feelings toward the APAs between the two treatments. While treatment students reported that the APAs were unique, reliable, timely resources, interviews indicate little difference between their experiences with the curriculum and those of the control group. Results presented here provide guidance for researchers and practitioners.     

An exploration of longitudinal studies of digital learning

ABSTRACT

Background: The importance of digital technologies for enhancing learning in formal education settings has been widely acknowledged. In the light of this expectation, it is important to investigate the effects of these technologies on students’ learning and development.

Purpose: This study explores longitudinal empirical research on digital learning in the context of primary and secondary education. By focusing on a small selection of the peer-reviewed literature, the aim is to examine the kinds of longitudinal study published on this topic during the period 2012–2017 and, thorough categorisation, to bring together insights about the reported influences of digital technology use on students’ learning.

Design and methods: The databases searched for the purposes of this review were Scopus and Web of Science. Of 1,989 articles, 13 were finally included in the review. Using qualitative content analysis, these were analysed, coded and categorised.

Results: The reviewed studies were found to have approached digital learning in different ways: they varied, for example, in terms of research methods and design and the digital technologies used. The studies addressed different aspects of learning, which we assigned to six categories: affection, attitude, and motivation; subject-specific knowledge and skills; transversal skills; learning experience; elements of the learning environment; and identity. We identified both positive and negative influences of technology on learning.

Conclusions: This review offers a snapshot of the variety of research in this fast-moving area. The studies we explored were found to approach digital learning from several different perspectives, and no straightforward conclusions can be drawn about the influences of digital technology use on students’ learning. We conclude that further longitudinal studies of digital learning are needed, and this study assists by highlighting gaps in the existing literature.