Behavioural sequential analysis of using an instant response application to enhance peer interactions in a flipped classroom

To stimulate classroom interactions, this study employed two different smartphone application modes, providing an additional instant interaction channel in a flipped classroom teaching fundamental computer science concepts. One instant interaction mode provided the students (N?=?36) with anonymous feedback in chronological time sequence, while the other showed their feedback by “like” ranking (N?=?26). The behavioural patterns of undergraduates using these two different modes were compared. The results showed that the like-ranked feedback deepened the interaction between asking and answering questions, reduced the number of irrelevant messages, and increased attention to questionable messages. The students using the like-ranking mode also received more encouragement during the flipped classroom discussion activities.     

A person-centred approach to understanding cultures of assessment

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how faculty members coalesce into distinguishable groups in terms of their perceived cultures of assessment at their respective institutions. To date, although researchers have posited the existence of various cultures of assessment, no study to our knowledge has empirically demonstrated the presence of these unobserved (latent) cultures analytically. Accordingly, a latent profile analysis was conducted using Mplus to identify these unobserved groups based on faculty (n = 1148) members’ responses to 12 items (6-point Likert scale) selected from the 2014 Faculty Survey of Assessment Culture. The resulting 4-class solution, including a previously unidentified group, was confirmed by the Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted Likelihood Ratio Test: Culture of Student Learning (n = 502); Evolving Student Learning Culture (n = 398); Culture of Compliance (n = 168); and Culture of Fear (n = 80). Characteristics of each class are described and the prevalence of each class by type of degree granting institution and primary discipline is provided.     

A kinect-based motion-sensing game therapy to foster the learning of children with sensory integration dysfunction

Sensory integration dysfunction (SID, also known as sensory processing disorder, SPD) is a condition that exists when a person’s multisensory integration fails to process and respond adequately to the demands of the environment. Children with SID (CwSID) are also learners with disabilities with regard to responding adequately to the demands made by a learning environment, and usually have performance difficulties in one or more areas of life, such as productivity, leisure and play, or activities of daily living, and this can reduce their learning motivation. This study tries to develop a motion-sensing digital game-based SID therapy to help such children become more engaged in physical training, with the hope that by improving their bodily-kinesthetic intelligence these children can be more confident of facing various learning challenges, like those associated with social participation. This research applied the Microsoft Kinect system and a specially designed motion-sensing game related to SID, and used interviews to collect responses from the children and their parents. The Chinese version of the sensory profile and clinical observation were applied to evaluate the effects of the therapy, and the triangulation method applied in the data analysis reveals the improvements of all participants in eight clinical observation items. The results imply that our approach was able to increase the learning motivation and actions of the CwSID who participated in this study, with better results than those obtained in our earlier work, which used the Nintendo Wii device and its commercially available games.     

“It’s the magic circle”! using cogenerative dialogues to create a safe environment to address emotional conflicts in a project-based learning science internship

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Research is urgently needed to learn how to improve the emotional climate of science learning by ameliorating excesses of negative emotions, which may lead...     

Enhancing concept comprehension in a web-based course using a framework integrating the learning cycle with variation theory

Concept comprehension is an important foundation for more complex thoughts. To enhance concept comprehension, teachers of traditional classrooms have been using instructional strategies and specific course designs, which have been proven effective. It initiates a hypothesis that integrating instructional strategies in the course designs of an e-learning system would improve the effectiveness of concept comprehension. The purpose of this study is to propose a framework that integrates the learning cycle with variation theory in the course design of a web-based e-learning system to prove the hypothesis. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design is employed to test whether the framework is feasible. Two types of web-based courses are designed for the experiments: a course designed according to a science textbook and another course designed using the framework. The participants in this study were 120 fifth-grade students in Taiwan. The results of the experiments show that the average scores of the experimental group, using the course designed with the framework, are significantly higher than that of the control group, using the course designed without any instructional strategy, on comprehension of course concepts. This confirms that the coherent, explicit and systematic framework is feasible for designing web-based e-learning courses for effectively enhancing concept comprehension as well as the evidence to prove the hypothesis.     

Better educational website interface design: the implications from gender-specific preferences in graduate students

This study investigated graduate students’ gender‐specific preferences for certain website interface design features, intending to generate useful information for instructors in choosing and for website designers in creating educational websites. The features investigated in this study included colour value, major navigation buttons placement, and navigation mode. In this study, 56 graduate students in a north‐eastern research university in the US volunteered to evaluate 30 pairs of web page screenshots or website prototypes, and to indicate on the questionnaires their preferences within each pair of prototype. Each participant's preferences for the three features were coded and categorised for chi‐square tests of independence to determine the relationships between gender and the investigated design features. The findings of gender effects on graduate students’ preferences for the aforementioned features were presented and discussed.     

Exploring the effects of integrating self-explanation into a multi-user game on the acquisition of scientific concepts

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of embedding collaboration into a game with a self-explanation design for supporting the acquisition of light and shadow concepts. The participants were 184 fourth graders who were randomly assigned to three conditions: a solitary mode of the game with self-explanation, a collaborative mode with self-explanation, or the control condition of a single-user game without integrating self-explanation. Students' conceptual understanding was measured through an immediate posttest and a retention test with a three-week delay. Further, students' engagement in answering the prompts was also investigated. The findings showed that having students collaboratively play science-based games with a self-explanation design embedded was not sufficient to help them learn the science concepts. Rather, it was the level of engagement in responding to the self-explanation prompts that mattered.     

废除高年级的时机到来了吗?

If it's fifth period, it must be time for Hacky Sack for high school senior Jess Rojas. Second period the Boulder, Colo., student spends staring into space at the library, and the rest of his day isn't much more challenging: The 17-year-old claims he can get A' or B's with little or no ef-     

Retrieval of images by spatial and object similarities

In the last several decades it has become an important basis to retrieve images from image databases (IDBs) by the semantic information held in the image objects and the spatial patterns formed by these objects. In this paper, we propose a new method for similarity retrieval of symbolic images by both the attributes and the spatial relationships of the contained objects. The proposed method CPM (common pattern method) retains the common spatial patterns of two images in new data structures CP_DAG (common pattern directed acyclic graph) and performs the similarity calculation efficiently in practice. The conducted experiments use both a synthetic dataset and an existing image database. The experimental results show that CPM outperforms LCS_Clique, SIM_R, SIM_DTC, and 2D Be-string for average efficiency and effectiveness. CPM also has steady efficiency while the number of image objects and the object symbol duplication rates increase.