Designing a robot teaching assistant for enhancing and sustaining learning motivation

Although many researchers have pointed out that educational robots can stimulate learners’ learning motivation, the learning motivation will be hardly sustained and rapidly decreased over time if the amusement and interaction merely come from the new technology itself without incorporating instructional strategies. Many researchers have identified that the sustainability of the learning motivation is closely related to the instructional strategies. Accordingly, learners must be well guided by suitable instructional strategies to enhance and sustain their learning motivation. In other words, suitable instructional strategies are required even if introducing educational robots to learners can stimulate learning motivation at the beginning of learning activities. Literature also suggests that systematic instructional strategies can be designed with the use of the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model. As the rapid development of robotics, it has become feasible to apply the educational robot for enhancing learning. A robot teaching assistant (RTA) was designed to enhance and sustain learning motivation for the learning of English reading skills. A quasi-experimental design and the Instructional Material Motivational Survey questionnaire were used for data collection and evaluation. The findings showed that the design of the RTA-based learning activities guided by the ARCS model for learning English reading skills can significantly improve learners’ learning motivation, learning performance, and continuance intention.     

Finding autonomy in activity: Development and validation of a democratic classroom survey

This paper developed a Democratic Classroom Survey to measure students’ perceived democratic environment of the classroom. Perceived democratic environment is one of the most important variables for understanding classroom activity and indeed any type of group activity, but actually measuring perceptions in an objective manner has been problematic. We developed the survey items from both a strong theoretical and a practical perspective, with the contention that Pleasing Authority/External Motivation, Performance Orientation, Cooperation/Collaboration, Integrated Activity, and Goals before Trust/Inter-subjective would be important factors for measuring individual students’ perceptions of the classroom along an authoritarian/democratic continuum. Factor analyses (Exploratory followed by Confirmatory analyses) confirmed the structure of the hypothesized subscales, and the good model fit indicated that the survey is valid. Also, correlation analyses with Classroom Community Scale showed good construct validity. Finally, reliability tests for each subscale and split-half reliability tests showed that the survey is a reliable tool to use in college classrooms. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Beginning teacher attrition: a question of identity making and identity shifting

While there is discrepancy about the actual percentage of early career teachers that leave teaching in their first five years, one consistent discovery in a number of countries is that attrition is high for early career teachers. I became curious about early career teacher attrition as I watched colleagues leave the profession that they thought was a lifelong calling. In order to inquire into this phenomenon, I moved through a three-stage research process. First, I engaged in writing a series of stories about my experiences as a beginning teacher. Using autobiographical narrative inquiry, I then inquired into the stories in order to retell them looking for resonances across the stories. Secondly, I conducted a review of the literature, analyzing the studies to identify how the problem of early career teacher attrition was conceptualized. I identified two dominant problem frames: a problem frame situated within the individual and a problem frame situated in the context. Lastly, I offered a different conceptualization of the phenomenon of early career teacher attrition that draws on my autobiographical narrative inquiry and the literature review. I frame the problem of teacher attrition, not as a personal or a contextual problem frame, but as a problem of teacher identity making and identity shifting.     

Professional identities and emotions of teachers in the context of curriculum reform: a Chinese perspective

This study explores the changing professional identities of teachers and their emotional experiences during curriculum reform in Shenzhen in the southern part of China. A qualitative approach to research was adopted. Findings reveal that the informants display several teaching behaviours and diverse emotions ranging from pain and helplessness, fulfilment and anxiety, and other mixed emotions. The three types of influential factors that influence teachers' professional identities are also discussed in this study.     

‘It’s only a phase’: examining trust,identification and mentoring functions received across the mentoring phases

Kram has proposed that mentoring relationships develop and mature over time, providing different levels of mentoring functions as they progress through a sequence of four distinct phases: initiation, cultivation, separation, and redefinition. However, the influence of these mentoring phases on the dynamics and functions of mentoring has received little research attention. This quantitative field study examined the effect of mentoring phases on protégés’ perception of trust and identification with their mentors and mentoring functions received using data from 88 working professionals from industry and education. Results of MANCOVA indicated that protégés in the redefinition phase reported higher levels of psychosocial support than other protégés, and protégés in the separation phase reported lower levels of career development and role modeling than other protégés. No significant differences across the mentoring phases were found for trust and identification among protégés towards their mentors; however, protégés from education reported lower levels of identification with their mentors than those from industry.     

Mentoring support and the professional development of beginning teachers: a Chinese perspective

For a long time, there has been a tradition in China of experienced teachers helping beginning teachers. This empirical school study investigates the kinds of support that are provided by eight dyads of mentoring teacher and first‐year secondary school teachers in Guangzhou of southern China and the major factors affecting mentoring support. In addition, this research focuses on the professional development of first‐year teachers in areas of subject knowledge, student, teaching and classroom management. The findings reveal that mentors provide four forms of support: provision of information, mutual lesson observation, collaborative lesson preparation and discussion in the office. Factors affecting mentoring support include teaching workload, grade and subject, style of mentor–protégé interactions, relationships between mentor and mentee, incentives for the mentors, and collegial culture in the case study schools. It is notable that there are positive and negative developments perceived by the protégé and the foci of mentoring tend to be the teaching of content rather than curriculum and pedagogy.     

The Family Festival Prevention Model: findings from a pilot of a teenage pregnancy prevention programme conceptualised by and for Mexican American communities

Despite an overall reduction in teenage pregnancy rates in the USA, the decrease for young women of Mexican heritage in the USA has been less significant than the decrease for their White and African-American peers. Furthermore, the availability of teenage pregnancy prevention models that are conceptualised specifically for people of Mexican descent is minimal. Using qualitative focus group data that were triangulated against quantitative survey data and collected from 35 young people and their parents, this paper presents findings from the pilot of a teenage pregnancy prevention model designed for and with input from Mexican American young women and men and their parents. Reflecting a favourable and impactful experience for the participants, the findings present implications for future intervention efforts and research.     

Electronic portfolios in grades one,two and three: a cautionary tale

Some electronic portfolios (EPs) developers are proposing that EPs are suitable for implementation in primary education (i.e. kindergarten to grade three). Yet, empirical research evaluating the implementation and efficacy of EPs used in primary school settings at both the teacher and the student level is scarce. In this research, the authors attempted to implement EPs in grades one, two and three (approximate ages 6 through 8). EPs were reviewed to make the EP selection and in-depth collaborative planning with the teachers ensued. The main challenges for teachers and students were at the user interface level. Results from this cautionary tale suggest that implementation of EPs in primary education may be premature. While much potential exists in EPs, it has yet to be realised. Recommendations for improving EPs are suggested.     

The Relationship between Narrative Content Variation,Affective and Cognitive Reactions,and a Person's Willingness to Sign an Organ Donor Card

This study predicted that variations in the content of a narrative organ donor appeal (i.e., the age of the donor, the age of the person whose life was saved, the donor's cause of death, and the number of people whose lives were saved) would have a differential impact on a person's affective and cognitive reactions to that message, which would in turn influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card. Two hundred sixty-eight individuals who had not signed an organ donor card previously read one of several narratives and then answered a series of questions designed to measure their attitudes toward signing an organ donor card. These data revealed that how a person dies (accident vs natural causes) and the number of people who are saved through organ donation indirectly influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card with vividness, sympathy, and happiness acting as mediating variables. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

Effects of tactile stimulation and gross motor movement on cognitive learning: A test of Montessori's muscular movement theory in the college classroom

Research investigating the management styles of male and female supervisors is mixed. In an effort to clarify this research, the present study examined the interaction effect of gender of supervisor and gender of subordinate on perceived mentoring. Results revealed the least amount of mentoring occurred between female supervisors and female subordinates, but the greatest mentoring took place between female supervisors and male subordinates. Results were explained in terms of managerial experience and the double‐bind of female managers. These findings challenge the traditional advice that female subordinates should seek female supervisors.