Using learning analytics to scale the provision of personalised feedback

There is little debate regarding the importance of student feedback for improving the learning process. However, there remain significant workload barriers for instructors that impede their capacity to provide timely and meaningful feedback. The increasing role technology is playing in the education space may provide novel solutions to this impediment. As students interact with the various learning technologies in their course of study, they create digital traces that can be captured and analysed. These digital traces form the new kind of data that are frequently used in learning analytics to develop actionable recommendations that can support student learning. This paper explores the use of such analytics to address the challenges impeding the capacity of instructors to provide personalised feedback at scale. The case study reported in the paper showed how the approach was associated with a positive impact on student perception of feedback quality and on academic achievement. The study was conducted with first year undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a computer systems course with a blended learning design across three consecutive years (N₂₀₁₃ = 290, N₂₀₁₄ = 316 and N₂₀₁₅ = 415).     

Culture as inter- and intra-personal mediator: considering the notion of conceptual porosity and its connection to culture as a concept

This study reports a collective case study of five science education graduate students to highlight the role of culture as an influential component within their conceptual understandings of urban science education. Conceptual change theory was used as a theoretical framework to explore the negotiations that five graduate students experienced during a semester-long ‘Urban and Multicultural Science Education’ course geared toward increasing conceptual complexity (i.e., the ways students make connections between concepts). Negotiation—the way these students’ adopted, resisted, or considered new inter-conceptual complexity—was studied through how these learners activated and applied their understandings. Findings support that culture influenced the development of conceptual complexity for the themes studied by increasing the permeability of concepts to connect to one another—coined here as conceptual porosity. This complexity is represented through the inter-conceptual connectivity that developed temporally during learning experiences. Implications for these findings are discussed, as well.

     

The effect of writing assignments on achievement in college general chemistry

This study was designed to determine if student learning in college general chemistry could be increased through the addition of required writing assignments. Sixty-four students enrolled in the same section of a general chemistry II course were randomly assigned to two groups. Treatment group members were required to turn in written summaries of 8 class lectures. These summaries were graded and returned with mistakes in chemistry and writing noted. Feedback concerning errors in chemical content was shared with the entire class prior to the posttest. Analysis of covariance of the posttest results showed that the treatment group members scored significantly higher than the students who did not write the summaries (F = 6.78, p < .05). No interaction was observed between group membership and pretest scores. These results indicate that student achievement in chemistry may be enhanced through required writing assignments. The study results are inconclusive as to whether the gains in achievement were due to the processes involved in organizing and writing the summaries, or due to the additional study time required to write the summaries.     

Converging Subjective and Psychophysiological Measures of Cognitive Load to Study the Effects of Instructor‐Present Video

Many online videos feature an instructor on the screen to improve learners' engagement; however, the influence of this design on learners' cognitive load is underexplored. This study investigates the effects of instructor presence on learners' processing of information using both subjective and psychophysiological measures of cognitive load. Sixty university students watched a statistics instructional video either with or without instructor presence, while the spontaneous electrical activity of their brain was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). At the conclusion of the video, they also self‐reported overall load, intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load they experienced during the video. Learning from the video was assessed via tests of retention and transfer. Results suggested the instructor‐present video improved learners' ability to transfer information and was associated with a lower self‐reported intrinsic and extraneous load. Event‐related changes in theta band activity also indicated lower cognitive load with instructor‐present video.     

Exploring the effects of group testing on graduate students’ motivation and achievement

This study explored the impact of individual versus two‐person group testing on graduate students’ achievement and motivation to learn while enrolled in a 16‐lesson educational research methods course. Students in two sections of the course were exposed to the same content and instructional methods, with one exception: students in one section took three professor‐created, criterion‐referenced examinations (during lessons 6, 11 and 16) individually, whereas students in the other section took the same examinations with a partner with whom they could examine and discuss the test items in order to derive a common answer. At the end of the course, the motivation to learn of all students was assessed. Results revealed that students tested with a partner achieved significantly higher scores on two of the examinations and demonstrated significantly higher levels of motivation to learn than did students taking the examinations alone. Qualitative analysis of the students’ written expressions concerning the course and of their comments from group and individual interviews revealed possible explanations for these outcomes.     

Sorting out successful failures: Exploratory analyses of factors associated with academic and behavioral outcomes of retained students

This prospective longitudinal study followed a sample of 106 kindergarten students through 11th grade examining the effects of family characteristics, school readiness, socialization, and student demographics on academic achievement and behavioral adjustment outcomes. These educational outcomes were contrasted among four groups consisting of: 1) early grade retainees; 2) transitionally placed retained students; 3) students recommended for transitional placement, but promoted; and 4) regularly promoted students. While previous studies examining the efficacy of early grade retention focus exclusively on between‐group comparisons, this study examines the family and individual characteristics of successful and unsuccessful retained students by including both between‐group and within‐group effects on academic and behavioral outcomes. The results of this study demonstrate that retained students' initial school readiness, socioeconomic status, mother's level of education, parental value of education, kindergarten personal‐social functioning, and chronological age are distinctly associated with subsequent academic or behavioral outcomes. Variables associated with relative educational success following early failure are delineated and research implications are discussed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration in a science education unit for preservice science teachers; students' perceptions of their ICT skills, knowledge and pedagogy

There is an expectation that new science teachers will be able to effectively use a range of information communication technology (ICT) related resources inthe science classroom in order to enhance student learning. All school systems in Australia are in the process of providing teachers with ICT professional development and infrastructure. This paper outlines a range of initiatives designed to integrate ICT in a compulsory science education unit for students enrolled in a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education. An action research model based on constructivist principles was used to evaluate the effectiveness of modelling, open-ended co-operative group activities and authentic assessment in enabling students to enhance their ICT skills, knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in a science education context. Multiple sources of data were generated including a pre and post unit questionnaire that was analysed using Rasch modelling. The questionnaire determined students' perceptions of their preparedness to teach using ICT. The findings of this research suggest that some skills warranted greater attention in the unit, but students' pedagogical knowledge and knowledge and critique of ICT resources were enhanced over the duration of the unit.     

Explaining technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a multilevel path analysis model

The purpose of this research was to design and test a model of classroom technology integration in the context of K-12 schools. The proposed multilevel path analysis model includes teacher, contextual, and school related variables on a teacher’s use of technology and confidence and comfort using technology as mediators of classroom technology integration. Data were collected from 1235 K-12 teachers, who were located in 336 schools in 41 districts across the state of Florida. The results suggest that a teacher’s experience with technology significantly influenced his or her classroom technology integration. Access to technology in classrooms and the availability of quality technology support were related to classroom technology integration. In addition, how frequently a teacher uses technology and his or her confidence and comfort using technology were mediators for classroom technology integration. These results provide preliminary evidence that the proposed model is both useful and relevant in explaining classroom technology integration in K-12 schools.     

Environmentalization of the physical education curriculum in Brazilian universities: culturally comparative lessons from critical outdoor education in Australia

‘Environmentalizing’ curriculum in Brazil is a worthy goal of global educational reform for sustainability but is challenging given the limits to rational change thesis already argued in critical social science and post-structural deconstructionism. The federal government mandate to environmentalize undergraduate physical education programs poses the question of which aspects of physical education are conducive to change. ‘Nature’ sports, or outdoor/adventure activity education, is the most likely candidate. In Australia over the past three decades, the environmentalization of ‘old’ physical education outdoor activities has led to the development of ‘new’ discourse practices that integrate environmental studies and outdoor education and are designed for ecological responsibility and social sustainability. In this culturally comparative light about the possibilities for curriculum change in environmental, outdoor and physical education, we examine the potential for change in Brazilian approaches to physical and sport education by critiquing broader ‘environmentalizing’ issues as they have occurred historically within the Australian outdoor education context in the university and secondary schooling sectors.