Affect graphing: leveraging graphical representations in the study of students’ affect in mathematics

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Affect (e.g., beliefs, attitudes, emotions) plays a crucial role in mathematics learning, but reliance on verbal and written responses (from surveys,...     

Design for Narrative Change. A Pedagogical Model for Interactive Digital Narratives

Narratives mirror shared interpretations of the world. Still, dominant narratives prevail, pushing non-hegemonic narratives in the corner. A change in the creation, interaction and distribution of narratives can support the design of counter-narratives able to feed social change. Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) can be considered an emerging experimental context in which designers, researchers and practitioners from various domains operate to develop story-based content addressing relevant social or societal issues. The IDN social constructivist role in encouraging or influencing individuals and collectivities towards social change is a relevant design issue especially from an educational perspective. Specifically, it features methodologies and praxis not yet systematised, in need of exploration and formalisation. Recognising the contribution of an approach combining transdisciplinary methods and tools, the article presents a pedagogical model for designing IDNs as complex interactive systems able to impact culture and society based on empirical study from a design course in the higher education context. Composed of theoretical and operational frameworks, the pedagogical model orients the multilayered design process for building engaging, interactive narrative artefacts systematising and operationalising knowledge from the domains of Communication for Social Change, storytelling and IDN in an iterative design process.     

Comparison of motor competence levels on two assessments across childhood

This study compared performances and motor delay classifications for the Test of Gross Motor Development-2nd edition (TGMD-2) and the Körperkoordinationstest Für Kinder (KTK) in a sample of 424 healthy children (47% girls) between 5 and 10 years of age. Low-to-moderate correlations (r range = 0.34–0.52) were found between assessments across age. In general, both boys and girls demonstrated higher raw scores across age groups. However, percentile scores indicated younger children outperformed older children, denoting a normative percentile-based decrease in motor competence (MC) in the older age groups. In total, the TGMD-2 and KTK classified 39.4% and 18.4% children, respectively, as demonstrating very low MC (percentile ≤5). In conclusion, the TGMD-2 classified significantly more children with motor delays than the KTK and the differences between children’s motor skill classification levels by these assessments became greater as the age groups increased. Therefore, the TGMD-2 may demonstrate more susceptibility to sociocultural influences and be more influenced by cumulative motor experiences throughout childhood. Low-to-moderate correlations between assessments also suggest the TGMD-2 and KTK may measure different aspects of MC. As such, it may be important to use multiple assessments to comprehensively assess motor competence.