Motivating factors in online language teacher education in southern Argentina

Online teacher education is of growing interest and so is the study of motivation as a key factor in technology-mediated learning environments. This study is based on a pre-service language teacher education programme in Patagonia, a southern Argentinian region with no face-to-face training offers, limited Internet access and a large number of unqualified teachers. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of online teacher education programmes at undergraduate level in contexts where most trainees are practicing teachers and where online education is the only possibility for holding a teaching qualification. We focused on the motivating factors that led 71 trainees to enrol and to remain in this online teacher training course. Through a mixed methods approach, the trainees completed an online survey (n = 71) and participated in a follow-up interview (n = 24). Results showed that obtaining a teaching degree, autonomy, and individual activities were key factors in initial and sustaining motivation. Participants' experiences challenged collaborative learning in an online environment.     

Instructional effectiveness of a computer-supported program for teaching reading comprehension strategies

This article examines the effectiveness of a computer-based instructional program (e-PELS) aimed at direct instruction in a collection of reading comprehension strategies. In e-PELS, students learn to highlight and outline expository passages based on various types of text structures (such as comparison or cause-and-effect) as well as to paraphrase, self-question, and summarize. The study involved 1041 fourth-grade elementary students from 21 schools distributed in three regions in central Chile. Participant teachers integrated this program into the Spanish language curriculum, instructing their students during thirty sessions of 90 min each during one school semester. Pretest-to-posttest gains in reading comprehension scores were significantly greater for students instructed with this program than for students who received traditional instruction (d = .5), with particularly strong effects for lower-achieving students (d = .7). The findings support the efficacy of direct instruction in specific learning strategies in a computer-based environment.     

Institutionalised ICT use in primary education: A multilevel analysis

This study uses a multilayered framework of different independent school and teacher variables to study which factors are related to the use of ICT for teaching and learning in Flemish (Belgium) primary schools. Special attention is paid to widely accepted technology uses by teachers, which is labelled as ‘Institutionalised ICT use’. A questionnaire has been administered to a representative teacher sample (N = 433) in 53 Flemish primary schools. Factor analyses and multilevel hierarchical regression analyses have been conducted. The results of the multilevel analysis show that ‘Institutionalised ICT use’ should not only be considered as a teacher phenomenon but also as a school phenomenon. The null model shows that about 14% of the variance in ICT use of teachers is due to between-school differences. In a final model, the variables ‘ICT professional development’, ‘ICT competences’, ‘developmental educational beliefs’, and ‘schools' ICT vision and policy’ showed a positive association with ‘Institutionalised ICT use’.     

Deconstructing and reconstructing: Transforming primary science learning via a mobilized curriculum

The history of science education reform has been fundamentally centered around science curriculum development and implementation. The advent of mobile technologies has necessitated a re-examination of how students could better learn science through these 21st century tools. Conventional teaching materials may not prepare students to learn the inquiry way and to become self-directed and social learners who could learn “everywhere and all the time (seamlessly)” using mobile technologies. This paper is based on our first year of work in our mobile learning research project in transforming primary three science lessons into a “mobilized” curriculum for a classroom context in which students routinely use mobile technologies. Using an exemplar fungi topic, we discuss our approach as well as experiences in deconstructing and reconstructing an existing curriculum through a co-design approach with teachers in a Singapore local school. In doing so, we make a contribution to the methodology for developing mobilized science curricula for in-class learning that also extends to out-of-class learning.     

Teacher regulation of cognitive activities during student collaboration: Effects of learning analytics

By collaboratively solving a task, students are challenged to share ideas, express their thoughts, and engage in discussion. Collaborating groups of students may encounter problems concerning cognitive activities (such as a misunderstanding of the task material). If these problems are not addressed and resolved in time, the collaborative process is hindered. The teacher plays an important role in monitoring and solving the occurrence of problems. To provide adaptive support, teachers continuously have to be aware of students' activities in order to identify relevant events, including those that require intervention. Because the amount of available information is high, teachers may be supported by learning analytics. The present experimental study (n = 40) explored the effect of two learning analytics tools (the Concept Trail and Progress Statistics) that give information about students' cognitive activities. The results showed that when teachers had access to learning analytics, they were not better at detecting problematic groups, but they did offer more support in general, and more specifically targeted groups that experienced problems. This could indicate that learning analytics increase teachers' confidence to act, which in turn means students could benefit more from the teacher's presence.     

Exploring pre-service teachers' beliefs about using Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 classroom

This qualitative study explored pre-service teachers' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs regarding their intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future classrooms. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework (Ajzen, 1991) to understand these beliefs and pre-service teachers' intentions for why they want to use Web 2.0 technologies. According to Ajzen's TPB, the behavioral beliefs are based on attitude toward outcomes or consequences of using Web 2.0, the normative beliefs depend on social support and social pressure to use Web 2.0, and the control beliefs lay the foundation of perceived behavioral control over using Web 2.0 in a classroom. Data were collected from open-ended survey questions (n = 190), semi-structured interviews (n = 12) and end of semester reflections (n = 12). Findings suggest that pre-service teachers' intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies are related to their beliefs about the value of these technologies for improving student learning and engagement, its ease of use (behavioral beliefs), its ability to meet the needs/expectations of digital age students (normative beliefs), the participants' high self-efficacy in use, and its potential for affording students anytime/anywhere access to learning and interaction (control beliefs). From these results, we recommend that teacher educators should target these beliefs within teacher development programs to prepare pre-service teachers for successful use of Web 2.0 technologies in their future K-12 classrooms.     

Cross-cultural analysis of users' attitudes toward the use of mobile devices in second and foreign language learning in higher education: A case from Sweden and China

The present study examined the current state of students' attitudes toward mobile technology use in and for second and foreign language learning in higher education. Moreover, the study investigated if age, gender or cultural factors affect these attitudes. A total of 345 students from two in many aspects different countries, China (Yunnan University) and Sweden (Dalarna University) participated in this study. To access learners' perceptions toward mobile technology use, we employed Kearney's pedagogical framework to mobile learning from a socio-cultural perspective (Kearney, Schuck, Burden, & Aubusson, 2012). Hofstede's cultural dimensions were used to approach students' cultural views, as these dimensions represent some values – aspects of culture – that may affect attitudes toward technology and learning individually as well as in combination. The findings show the respondents' attitudes toward mobile learning are very positive with individualization being most positive (83%) followed by collaboration (74%), and authenticity (73%). The statistical analysis indicates that Hofstede's factors cannot explain the differences in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) attitudes in the chosen sample. Among the personal factors, gender is identified to be a predictor to explain the differences in students' attitudes toward MALL. This study shows that technology itself seems to be the most important culture-shaping factor, more important than culture inherited from the physical environment, and more important than age.     

Blending traditional teaching methods with learning environments: Experience,cyclical evaluation process and impact with MAgAdI

This paper reports the experiment carried out at the University of the Basque Country concerning the integration of the MAgAdI on-line system within traditional teaching/learning methods. MAgAdI is an adaptive web environment devoted to supporting the learning processes in overall contexts, in which several knowledge fields, courses and teachers are involved. So far, a three-year cyclical evaluation-improvement process has been developed on several subjects and participants (n = 80) of a Computer Science degree programme. This process embraced formative and summative evaluation phases with the aim of: discovering the implications of the blended-learning loop on the satisfaction of teachers and motivation of students confirming improvements in student learning; and testing the usability of the Student Workspace. Experimental data were collected by means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Results of this study detect improvements in the students' acquisition of knowledge in the three phases where it was evaluated (Wilcoxon-test, p = 0.02, p = 0.048, p = 0.044), which may be attributable to the use of MAgAdI. In addition, increments in student's motivation and teacher's satisfaction were also perceived. Thus, these results agree with previous findings of related works.     

Promoting reading comprehension with the use of technology

The research presented here explores the impact of two web-based applications (an interactive, multimedia literacy software and a digital process portfolio) on early elementary students' reading comprehension. Two studies were conducted during the 2010–2011 and the 2011–2012 school years, targeting 26 teachers from elementary schools (grades 1–2), and their students (N = 517) from six English school boards in Quebec, Canada. Analyses of covariance showed that students using both tools performed significantly better (p < .001) compared to controls in reading and written expression as measured by standardized tests.     

Actual friends matter: An internet skills perspective on teens' informal academic collaboration on Facebook

Social media platforms such as Facebook enable adolescents to collaborate on academic activities, but this kind of participation may require a set of higher-order Internet skills. This study explores the factors that predict informal academic collaboration on Facebook, such as seeking help, discussing schoolwork, and finding class-related resources. Based on survey data collected from high school students (N = 690), we found that academic performance, perceived support from ‘actual’ Facebook friends, higher order Internet skills (especially information seeking skills), and instrumental support from Facebook friends predicted academic collaboration on Facebook. In light of these findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The promise,reality and dilemmas of secondary school teacher–student interactions in Facebook: The teacher perspective

We report on a multi-method study that seeks to explore if, how and why secondary teachers use Facebook (FB) to interact with their students. Issues of privacy, authority, and even abuse have fueled socio-political debates on the desirability of teacher–student FB contact, leading some authorities to curtail or even prohibit such contact. Proponents of harnessing Web 2.0 and Social media technology for learning purposes, on the other hand, have emphasized the many potential advantages for formal and informal learning. However, there is little empirical research on the scope, the nature and the purposes for secondary school teacher–student contact through social network sites. The present study makes a first step in this direction, by triangulating teacher survey data (N = 187) with in-depth teacher interviews (N = 11). Findings from both data sets show that teacher–student FB contact comes in different forms and serves a range of purposes, which fall into three main categories: Academic-instructional, psycho-pedagogical and social-relational. Advantages, dilemmas and limitations of FB contact with secondary school students are identified.     

Teachers' acceptance and use of an educational portal

In this study, teachers' acceptance and use of an educational portal is assessed based on data from two sources: usage data (number of logins, downloads, uploads, reactions and pages viewed) and an online acceptance questionnaire. The usage data is extracted on two occasions from the portal's database: at survey completion (T1) and twenty-two months later (T2). Framework for this study is C-TAM-TPB (Combined Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior). 919 usable responses from teachers are obtained. Based on the observed use data at T1, four types of portal users are distinguished: ‘new’ (N = 37), ‘light’ (N = 641), ‘medium’ (N = 201), and ‘heavy’ (N = 40). Path analyses show that all predictor variables in C-TAM-TPB influence teachers' portal acceptance, but their significance level varies depending on the user type. The strongest predictors of behavioral intention to use the portal are attitude (‘new’) and perceived usefulness (‘light’, ‘medium’ and ‘heavy’), with variance explained ranging from .39 (‘medium’) to .71 (‘heavy’). The observed use data show that the portal is primarily used to search for and download material, rather than for sharing material or information. The use data at T2 show that teachers become more efficient in their search behavior and that the majority of the teachers use the portal more frequently. Guidelines are proposed to policymakers and school boards aiming to introduce a similar technology to teachers.     

Development of a Moodle course for schoolchildren’s table tennis learning based on Competence Motivation Theory: Its effectiveness in comparison to traditional training method

Based on Competence Motivation Theory (CMT), a Moodle course for schoolchildren’s table tennis learning was developed (The URL is http://www.bssepp.com, and this course allows guest access). The effects of the course on students’ knowledge, perceived competence and interest were evaluated through quantitative methods. The sample of the study consisted of 32 primary school students, who were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which used the Moodle course (Group M, N = 16) and the other one (Group C, N = 16) didn’t, and the intervention lasted 6 weeks. The result showed that (1) students made significant learning gains and demonstrated statistically significant higher perceived competence by participating in the Moodle course, (2) there was no statistically significant mean difference in table tennis interest between the two intervention groups. These positive effects on knowledge and perceived competence suggest that Moodle can be used as a tool to supplement traditional motor learning.     

How teachers integrate a math computer game: Professional development use,teaching practices,and student achievement

As more attention is placed on designing digital educational games to align with schools' academic aims (e.g., Common Core), questions arise regarding how professional development (PD) may support teachers' using games for instruction and how such integration might impact students' achievement. This study seeks to (a) understand how teachers use PD resources (e.g., technology personnel and game‐use workshops) for integration; (b) determine how teachers integrate games into their instruction; and (c) examine how those teaching practices are associated with student achievement. This mixed method study used survey and interview responses from elementary school teachers (n = 863) with access to PD resources for implementing a math game intervention and standardized math‐test scores from their second‐ through sixth‐grade students (n = 10,715). Findings showed few teachers sought PD assistance for integration, but many desired such support. Some reported using integrative practices (i.e., referencing game and using game‐generated progress reports) to identify struggling students, whereas several found integration challenging. Teachers' reordering of game objectives to align with lessons and viewing of game‐based PD videos were associated with increased student math achievement in our OLS‐analysis. However, this result was no longer statistically significant within a school fixed‐effects model, suggesting school differences may influence how strongly teachers' practices are associated with student achievement.     

Constructing and evaluating online goal-setting mechanisms in web-based portfolio assessment system for facilitating self-regulated learning

The purpose of the present study was to construct goal-setting mechanisms in a web-based portfolio assessment system (WBPAS), based on the self-regulated learning (SRL) process proposed by Zimmerman, and to examine effects of these mechanisms on SRL. The participants were two classes of 11th graders taking the website design class in a vocational high school. The participants were assigned randomly to either an experimental group (n = 40) learning with a WBPAS or a control group (n = 41) learning with a paper-based portfolio. The study results revealed the following: a) the quality of goal-setting mechanisms may facilitate SRL. b) Students setting learning goals with the WBPAS demonstrated significantly better SRL than students setting learning goals with the paper-based portfolio.     

E-Science in the classroom – Towards viability

E-Science has the potential to transform school science by enabling learners, teachers and research scientists to engage together in authentic scientific enquiry, collaboration and learning. However, if we are to reap the benefits of this potential as part of everyday teaching and learning, we need to explicitly think about and support the work required to set up and run e-Science experiences within any particular educational context. In this paper, we present a framework for identifying and describing the resources, tools and services necessary to move e-Science into the classroom together with examples of these. This framework is derived from previous experiences conducting educational e-Science projects and systematic analysis of the categories of ‘hidden work’ needed to run these projects. The articulation of resources, tools and services based on these categories provides a starting point for more methodical design and deployment of future educational e-Science projects, reflection on which can also help further develop the framework. It also points to the technological infrastructure from which such tools and services could be built. As such it provides an agenda of work to develop both processes and technologies that would make it practical for teachers to deliver active, and collaborative e-Science learning experiences on a larger scale within and across schools. Routine school e-Science will only be possible if such support is specified, implemented and made available to teachers within their work contexts in an appropriate and usable form.     

1:1 mobile inquiry learning experience for primary science students: a study of learning effectiveness

This paper presents the findings of a research project in which we transformed a primary (grade) 3 science curriculum for delivery via mobile technologies, and a teacher enacted the lessons over the 2009 academic year in a class in a primary school in Singapore. The students had a total of 21 weeks of the mobilized lessons in science, which were co‐designed by teachers and researchers by tapping into the affordances of mobile technologies for supporting inquiry learning in and outside of class. We examine the learning effectiveness of the enacted mobilized science curriculum. The results show that among the six mixed‐ability classes in primary (grade) 3 in the school, the experimental class performed better than other classes as measured by traditional assessments in the science subject. With mobilized lessons, students were found to learn science in personal, deep and engaging ways as well as developed positive attitudes towards mobile learning.     

Promoting socially shared regulation of learning in CSCL: Progress of socially shared regulation among high- and low-performing groups

Collaborative groups encounter many challenges in their learning. They need to recognize challenges that may hinder collaboration, and to develop appropriate strategies to strengthen collaboration. This study aims to explore how groups progress in their socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) in the context of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Teacher education students (N = 103) collaborated in groups of three to four students during a two-month multimedia course. The groups used the Virtual Collaborative Research Institute (VCRI) learning environment along with regulation tools that prompted them to recognize challenges that might hinder their collaboration and to develop SSRL strategies to overcome these challenges.In the data analysis, the groups reported challenges, and the SSRL strategies they employed were analyzed to specify the focus and function of the SSRL. Process discovery was used to explore how groups progressed in their SSRL. The results indicated that depending on the phase of the course, the SSRL focus and function shifted from regulating external challenges towards regulating the cognitive and motivational aspects of their collaboration. However, the high-performing groups progressed in their SSRL in terms of evidencing temporal variety in challenges and SSRL strategies across time, which was not the case with low performing groups.     

The role of authenticity in design-based learning environments: The case of engineering education

The term authenticity is pervasive in the education literature in general and specifically in the design education and engineering education literature; yet, the construct is often used un-reflected and ill defined. The purpose of this paper is (1) to critically examine current conceptualizations of authenticity as principles to design learning modules and environments within engineering education and (2) to propose a systematically derived model of authenticity. The context of the project is toward pre-college engineering education yet findings are applicable across the lifespan of engineering education. A systematic literature review guided by procedures set forth by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination was conducted in the engineering education literature to synthesize the findings. Based on an initial sample of papers (n = 36) a rubric was developed to identify authenticity and authentic experiences in engineering education. Using the developed rubric, a total pool of 1058 references was evaluated using the rubric with 88%–100% inter-rater reliability for each category of authenticity. A frequency analysis of references revealed that the majority of work is seen in undergraduate education, and only 14 instances of authenticity in engineering education appeared at the K-12 level. The proposed model of authenticity includes two additions to existing models introducing impact authenticity and value authenticity. The findings and the model are described. Implications include the use of different types of authenticity to provide more appropriate and promising principles for better design of engineering curricula and standards for curriculum developers and professional development providers, including more use of authenticity in the K-12 classroom.     

Interrelationship between Stages of Concern and Technological,Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge: A study on Taiwanese senior high school in-service teachers

Whereas teachers’ Stages of Concern (SoC) and their Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) appear to be related constructs, studies are scant regarding the connection between these two research areas. This study intensively examined the association between Taiwanese senior high school teachers’ SoC and TPACK through a national survey (N = 605) and canonical correlational analysis. To ensure rigor of study, we revised a TPACK instrument for Taiwanese senior high school teachers, statistically tested SoC’s developmental phases, and reworked the Stages of Concern Questionnaire. Three canonical correlations became evident, portraying a significant connection between SoC and TPACK and further supporting our hypothesis that a higher level of technology integration would correlate higher with more synthesized types of teacher knowledge. Recommendations were put forward regarding support strategies of change facilitators, as well as directions for future research.