Virtual and Traditional Feedback-Seeking Behaviors: Underlying Competitive Attitudes and Consequent Grade Performance

The electronic medium continues to play an increasingly important role in the delivery of management education despite a paucity of empirical studies on its impact and efficacy. Results from a study of competitive attitudes and feedback‐seeking behaviors across seven “hybrid” electronic cum live classes showed that Kiasu‐Negative (a competitive attitude directed at preventing others from getting ahead of oneself) and Kiasu‐Positive (a competitive attitude directed at personal diligence to get ahead of others) ( Hwang, Ang, & Francesco, 2002 ) were related to two electronic discussion board feedback‐seeking behaviors. These feedback‐seeking behaviors, in turn, were related to grade performance as measured by multiple‐choice tests. Traditional feedback‐seeking measures of asking the professor in class or outside the class, and checking with fellow students for their views on class topics did not have a positive influence on multiple‐choice test performance. In light of these findings, educators should consider how best to encourage participation on electronic discussion boards for hybrid type courses, while researchers should further examine the underlying causes of learning from such electronic exchanges. Other implications of these findings are also discussed.     

“American = English Speaker” Before “American = White”: The Development of Children's Reasoning About Nationality

Adults implicitly judge people from certain social backgrounds as more “American” than others. This study tests the development of children's reasoning about nationality and social categories. Children across cultures (White and Korean American children in the United States, Korean children in South Korea) judged the nationality of individuals varying in race and language. Across cultures, 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 100) categorized English speakers as “American” and Korean speakers as “Korean” regardless of race, suggesting that young children prioritize language over race when thinking about nationality. Nine‐ and 10‐year‐olds (N = 181) attended to language and race and their nationality judgments varied across cultures. These results suggest that associations between nationality and social category membership emerge early in life and are shaped by cultural context.     

Film scenes in interdisciplinary education: teaching the Internet of Things*

The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining importance in education owing to its rapid development. This study addresses the importance of interdisciplinary education between technology and the humanities. The use of films as a teaching resource is suitable for interdisciplinary education because films represent creative forecasts and predictions on future human society, helping the public realize what could occur in the future. By utilizing films in instruction, students can be trained to understand the three key functions of IoT and acquire the ability to develop creative applications of IoT. An IoT teaching model using the films Minority Report (2002), Big Hero 6 (2014), Iron Man 3 (2013), Her (2013), and Transcendence (2014), all of which depict various applications of IoT that could be helpful in the teaching of the functions and concepts of IoT, is suggested; an interdisciplinary class is carried out for 15 weeks following the model. The effectiveness of the class is measured using quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, and reflection journals. The findings show that students developed interdisciplinary capacity through education using films.     

Impacts of an AI-based chabot on college students’ after-class review,academic performance,self-efficacy,learning attitude,and motivation

Educational technology research and development - Review strategies after learning new knowledge are essential for students to consolidate the key points, understand the subject content, analyze...     

Structural design of a double-layered porous hydrogel for effective mass transport

Mass transport in porous materials is universal in nature, and its worth attracts great attention in many engineering applications. Plant leaves, which work as natural hydraulic pumps for water uptake, have evolved to have the morphological structure for fast water transport to compensate large water loss by leaf transpiration. In this study, we tried to deduce the advantageous structural features of plant leaves for practical applications. Inspired by the tissue organization of the hydraulic pathways in plant leaves, analogous double-layered porous models were fabricated using agarose hydrogel. Solute transport through the hydrogel models with different thickness ratios of the two layers was experimentally observed. In addition, numerical simulation and theoretical analysis were carried out with varying porosity and thickness ratio to investigate the effect of structural factors on mass transport ability. A simple parametric study was also conducted to examine unveiled relations between structural factors. As a result, the porosity and thickness ratio of the two layers are found to govern the mass transport ability in double-layered porous materials. The hydrogel models with widely dispersed pores at a fixed porosity, i.e., close to a homogeneously porous structure, are mostly turned out to exhibit fast mass transport. The present results would provide a new framework for fundamental design of various porous structures for effective mass transport.     

Positivist and constructivist persuasions in instructional development

Constructivism has been an influential theoretical persuasion in recent years in the field of instructional design and development. Yet the theoretical tenets and applications of constructivism in instructional development (ID) have been often discussed outside the context of the long-standing paradigmatic pursuits from which constructivism stems. Efforts to continue an intellectual journey, exploring how different theoretical bases lead to different implications for ID, must be based on a clear understanding of different paradigms. Hence, constructivism is discussed here in the context of the underlying paradigm debate involving the old positivist paradigm and the new constructivist paradigm. This article explores how these different paradigms have shaped different theories and practices in ID. Specifically, three versions of constructivism and how they have influenced ID are critically examined. Finally, it is recommended that the two paradigms, positivism and constructivism, can be applied in a complementary way in ID.     

A case study of collaboration with multi-robots and its effect on children's interaction

Learning how to carry out collaborative tasks is critical to the development of a student's capacity for social interaction. In this study, a multi-robot system was designed for students. In three different scenarios, students controlled robots in order to move dice; we then examined their collaborative strategies and their behavioral interactions. The following three scenarios were used: three students to three robots, three students to two robots, and two students to three robots. The experimental samples comprised sixth-grade students in elementary schools, 16 groups in total, and each group comprised three students. The results revealed three collaborative strategies for solving problems that emerged from the three scenarios: (1) independent-control (like cooperation), (2) mutual-control (like collaboration), and (3) coordinator-directed (like collaboration with coordinator). This study also found that students completed a task better with the least required time when they adopted the mutual-control strategy. In addition, coordination in the mutual-control and coordinator-directed strategies was generally regarded as helpful to task completion. With respect to behavioral interactions, students understood the importance of coordination yet still recognized that the skill of negotiation had to be learned. Our results suggest that the mutual-control and coordinator-directed collaborative strategy increased the frequency of task related interactions. Because collaboration inevitably entails conflicts, we should guide students not only in preventing these conflicts but also in learning how to cope with conflict and communicate and coordinate with others. By working together, learners had to figure out how to reduce conflicts, which was both a benefit to the completion of their collaborative tasks and an important skill for their socialization.