Understanding the intention to use interactive whiteboards: model development and testing

The effective use of an interactive whiteboard (IWB) in teacher-education institutions depends strongly on student teachers' intention of using it. Despite the recent surge in published research on the widespread applications for IWBs in teaching and learning, few have developed a model to elucidate the factors which influence student teachers' behavioural intentions (BIs) regarding the use of IWBs. The aim of this study was to develop a model which demonstrates the variables that affect student teachers' intentions and which also explain their interactions. The proposed research model is based on previous models of technology acceptance. Six variables (technology self-efficacy (TSE), performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI), facilitating condition, and BI) were selected to build a model for this study. Structural equation modelling was used as the main technique for data analysis. The research model was found reliable and valid, the findings being based on a self-reported survey of 156 student teachers in Australia. Of the seven hypotheses which were formulated, five were supported by the findings. From the effect sizes, the dominant determinant of BI was found to be PE, this being followed by TSE, EE, and SI.     

Negative thinking versus positive thinking in a Singaporean student sample: Relationships with psychological well-being and psychological maladjustment

This study examines the relationships of positive thinking versus negative thinking with psychological well-being and psychological maladjustment. Three hundred and ninety-eight undergraduate students from Singapore participated in this study. First, positive thinking were positively correlated with indicators psychological well-being – life satisfaction and happiness, and negatively correlated with indicators of psychopathology – stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. In contrast, negative thinking were positively correlated with indicators of psychopathology – stress, anxiety, depression, and anger, and negatively correlated with indicators of psychological well-being – life satisfaction and happiness. Second, hierarchical multiple regression results showed that females were more likely than males to be stressed and anxious at the first step of entry. However, there were no significant differences between the sexes in terms of depression, anger, life satisfaction, and happiness. Age did not significantly predict any of the criterion variables. Third, hierarchical multiple regression results showed that negative thinking accounted for more of the significant incremental unique variance in depression, stress, anxiety, life satisfaction, anger, and happiness in order of effect size. This is also found that positive thinking do accounted for a sizable significant incremental unique variance in happiness and life satisfaction, while a very small percentage of 1% significant incremental unique variance for stress, depression, anxiety, and anger. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed.     

Investigating changes in pedagogical knowledge and skills from pre-service to the initial year of teaching

This study examined the levels of pedagogical knowledge and skills as perceived by student teachers who were enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma in Education program at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, from the beginning of their initial teacher preparation program to the end of their first year of teaching. Their perceptions were assessed using the Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills in Teaching (PKST) survey which comprised six factors, namely, Student Learning, Lesson Planning, Instructional Support, Accomodating Diversity, Classroom Management, and Care and Concern. A sample of 812 student teachers participated in the study. The MANOVA conducted showed that there were significant increases in both their pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching in all six factors from the start of their initial teacher preparation (ITP) program till the end of their first year of teaching. However, between the exit from the program to the end of the first year of teaching, they only perceived that their level of pedagogical knowledge in classroom management and care and concern continued to increase significantly. In the case of self-perceived skills, their level increased significantly between entry and exit of the program for all factors, except for care and concern, while the increase between the exit and first year of teaching was significant for all six factors. These results may have implications for preservice teacher education and this will be discussed in this article.     

A split-list approach for relevance feedback in information retrieval

In this paper we present a new algorithm for relevance feedback (RF) in information retrieval. Unlike conventional RF algorithms which use the top ranked documents for feedback, our proposed algorithm is a kind of active feedback algorithm which actively chooses documents for the user to judge. The objectives are (a) to increase the number of judged relevant documents and (b) to increase the diversity of judged documents during the RF process. The algorithm uses document-contexts by splitting the retrieval list into sub-lists according to the query term patterns that exist in the top ranked documents. Query term patterns include a single query term, a pair of query terms that occur in a phrase and query terms that occur in proximity. The algorithm is an iterative algorithm which takes one document for feedback in each of the iterations. We experiment with the algorithm using the TREC-6, -7, -8, -2005 and GOV2 data collections and we simulate user feedback using the TREC relevance judgements. From the experimental results, we show that our proposed split-list algorithm is better than the conventional RF algorithm and that our algorithm is more reliable than a similar algorithm using maximal marginal relevance.     

How socioeconomic status,executive functioning and verbal interactions contribute to early academic achievement in Chinese children

The present study investigated the relative importance of executive functioning, parent–child verbal interactions, phonological awareness and visual skills on reading and mathematics for Chinese children from low-versus middle-socio economic status (SES) backgrounds. A total of 199 kindergarten children were assessed on executive functioning, verbal interactions, phonological awareness, visual skills, mathematics and word reading in Chinese and English. Results revealed that low-SES children exhibited lower levels of cognitive-linguistic skills, verbal interactions, reading and mathematics achievement than their middle-SES counterparts. Path analyses also indicated that executive functioning and verbal interactions made significant and direct contributions to mathematics, and indirect contributions to reading through phonological awareness. These results suggest that executive functioning and verbal interactions provide the foundation for phonological awareness and visual skills, which in turn affect reading and mathematics achievement. Overall, findings underscore the potential importance of SES inequalities, cognitive-linguistic skills and parental verbal input to their children for early reading and mathematics achievement.     

The nature of Chinese Language classroom learning environments in Singapore secondary schools

This article reports findings from a classroom environment study which was designed to investigate the nature of Chinese Language classroom environments in Singapore secondary schools. We used a perceptual instrument, the Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory, to investigate teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards their Chinese Language classroom learning environments using six dimensions, namely, Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Cooperation, Task Orientation and Equity. The investigation was carried out using a sample of 1,460 secondary three (Grade 9) students from 50 Chinese Language classes in 25 Singapore government secondary schools. The nature of the Chinese Language classroom learning environments was interpreted from analyses of the perception scores obtained, as well as from various comparisons of the perception scores between different groups. Although both the Chinese Language teachers and students perceived their present classroom learning environments positively, they would like improvements in all the six dimensions of the classroom learning environments under investigation. Also teachers perceived a more positive classroom learning environment than their students in the same class. In addition, female students perceived their actual and preferred classroom environments more positively than their male counterparts.     

Meta-Analysis of Emotional Designs in Multimedia Learning: A Replication and Extension Study

Educational Psychology Review - Emotions can both facilitate and hinder learning. Emotional design features such as colors and shapes can be embedded in multimedia learning environments to...     

What makes a professional learning community possible? A case study of a Mathematics department in a junior secondary school of China

The concept of “professional learning community” (PLC) has been suggested as a tool to improve teachers’ professional competency and students’ learning outcomes since the mid-1990s. In such a community, teachers can share their individual practices with the aim of searching for “good practice” based on the outcome of collective inquiry. Such a learning process will result in a reculturing of the school community by reshaping the existing values and cultures and resolving problems such as teacher isolation and individualism. China already has a long tradition of teachers working and learning collaboratively, so investigating collaborative efforts in this context may provide a view of how to contextualize professional development of teachers in schools. This study attempts to access teachers’ lenses in order to explore their views on the effects of subject-based professional learning activities. This also helps to explain how teachers work and openly share their practices aiming at improving their professional competency and student learning outcomes within their communities. Also, factors influencing the sustainability of a professional learning community will be discussed.     

The effects of expressions of fear induced by background music on reading comprehension

Background

Research has suggested that background music can have a positive or negative effect that can influence the affective state of individuals. Although research has demonstrated that fear negatively influences our cognitive performance, there is a research gap in understanding the combined effects of different background music tempo and fear in influencing reading comprehension performance.

Methods

Data were collected from 70 participants enrolled at a public university in Canada. Participants were required to listen to background music of varying speeds with three conditions (no music, slow music and fast music). We adopted a cross-sectional multi-level modelling approach for the main analyses, and further analyses using t-test and ANOVA.

Results

Results indicated that expression of fear was not a significant predictor of participants' reading comprehension performance (Model 1). However, when music condition was added (Model 2) in addition to expression of fear, a significant relationship between reading comprehension performance and music condition was found, showing better reading comprehension performance in the slow music condition than in the no music condition. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between music condition and expression of fear on reading comprehension performance (Model 3). Importantly, not all individuals were affected by the music to the same extent, with the possibility that baseline level of fear being the key issue in influencing comprehension performance.

Conclusions

Considering both expression of fear and music condition is required to understand the combined effects on cognitive performance. Expression of fear during cognitive tasks such as reading could be an essential signal that interventions should be applied. Such strategies may be especially beneficial for task performers with higher baseline levels of fear and possibly provide us with insights for best practice and research implications in the field of reading comprehension among individuals with special needs.