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.     

“Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)” for seamless science inquiry in a primary school

This paper reports a one-year study on the project of “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for seamless science inquiry” in a primary school in Hong Kong. BYOD in this study refers to “the technology model where students bring a personally owned mobile device with various apps and embedded features to use anywhere, anytime for the purpose of learning”. The study aims at investigating (a) what advancement of content knowledge students made in their science inquiry in a seamless learning environment supported by their own mobile device; (b) how the students advanced their content knowledge in science inquiry; and (c) what students' perception is regarding their learning experience supported by their own mobile devices. The topic of inquiry was “The Anatomy of Fish”. Data collection included pre- and post-domain tests, self-reported questionnaire, student artifacts, class observations and field notes. Content analysis and a student artifact tracing approach were adopted in the data analysis to examine and trace students' knowledge advancement. The research findings show that the students advanced their understanding of the anatomy of fish well beyond what was available in the textbook and they developed positive attitude toward seamless science inquiry supported by their own mobile devices.     

Speech versus text supported hints in learning to solve word problems

The aim of this research was to test whether the effectiveness of hints offered in a computer programme for word problem solving can be enhanced by combining visual schemas with spoken instruction (audio and visual input) instead of written instruction with visual schemas (visual only input). In complex tasks, audio/visual information is easier to comprehend than visual only information (Clark and Mayer, 2011, call this the ‘modality effect'). In a first study, it was tested on the basis of 6 word problems whether grade 5 students (n = 20) better improved their solution plans using audio plus visual schemas than students who were provided with text plus visual schemas (n = 21). We found that students who worked with audio/visual hints had less difficulty in translating the hints information into their solution plans. The second study was based on a programme containing 48 word problems in which hints use was optional. The students in the audio-visual condition (n = 28) solved more problems correctly and performed better on a post-test than the students in the text-visual condition (n = 30). These results seem to support our expectation that the modality of hints affects students' comprehension and ability levels in solving word problems.     

Effect of blended learning environment on transfer of learning: an experimental study

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effect of the blended learning and face‐to‐face learning on students' academic achievements and transfer of learning. The first aim of the study is to analyse the students' academic achievements to determine the change of theoretical knowledge in terms of the instructional method applied in this study. However, students' performances during the learning process are not always a good indicator. Therefore, the second aim of the study is to examine transferring students' theoretical knowledge to their educational multimedia projects. For this purpose, 14 weeks of pre‐ and post‐test experimental study is designed. The study is administered through an educational technology course in which students learn how to develop educational multimedia materials. The participants are undergraduate pre‐service teachers; they are assigned randomly to the experimental and control group. While the experimental group has both online and classroom sessions, the control group has only face‐to‐face classroom sessions. Although there is no significant difference between the groups in terms of academic achievement, the students in the blended group are more successful in transferring their knowledge to their projects than the ones in the face‐to‐face group. In conclusion, the results show that the blended learning approach has a positive effect on the transfer of learning.     

Examining social adjustment to college in the age of social media: Factors influencing successful transitions and persistence

Social adjustment plays a critical role in student persistence at college. Social media such as Facebook, used widely by this population, have the potential to positively enhance students' transition to college by encouraging connection and interaction among peers. The present study examines the role Facebook plays in students' social adjustment during their first year of college using survey data (N = 338) collected from students at a private, liberal arts college in the Midwest. We develop and test a model that includes both traditional and Facebook-specific predictors of social support and social adjustment, as well as explore the role that these factors play in predicting students' enrollment status the following year. Results indicate positive relationships between two Facebook variables—the number of Facebook Friends students have at the college and their engagement in collaborative behaviors with classmates through the site—and measures of social support and social adjustment, as well as a positive relationship between social adjustment and persistence at the university.     

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.     

The Big-Fish–Little-Pond-Effect revisited: Do different types of assessments matter?

In large-scale assessments such as the PISA study, there is a current shift from traditional paper-and-pencil towards computer-based assessments of students' literacy in reading, math, and science. Thus, research has focused on examining the comparability of test scores and motivational factors across the different assessment types. However, it is currently unclear whether the negative effect of school-average ability on students' individual self-concept (i.e., the Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect, BFLPE) is also robust against the shift in assessments. In the present investigation, we consequently evaluate the relations between math self-concept, school-average ability, and the type of assessment. Based on the Norwegian PISA 2012 data set (N = 4686), we employed multilevel structural equation modeling and found that (a) the BFLPE existed for both assessments with a slightly higher effect size for the computer-based assessment; (b) math anxiety moderated the BFLPE, whereas self-efficacy, the availability and use of information and communication technology (ICT) did not. Our results support the robustness of the BFLPE across the different assessments of mathematical literacy and point out that computer-based assessments involve similar social comparisons as traditional paper-and-pencil tests.     

Effects of interactivity and instructional scaffolding on learning: Self-regulation in online video-based environments

Online learning often requires learners to be self-directed and engaged. The present study examined students' self-regulatory behaviors in online video-based learning environments. Using an experimental design, this study investigated the effects of a newly designed enhanced video learning environment, which was designed to support or scaffold students' self-regulated or self-directed learning on students' learning behaviors and outcomes. In addition, correspondence between students' self-regulation strategies in traditional learning environments and observed self-regulated learning behaviors in the enhanced video environment were examined. A cross-sectional experimental research design with systematic random assignment of participants to either the control condition (common video) or the experimental condition (enhanced video) was utilized. Undergraduate and graduate students participated in the study (N = 80). Study results indicate that the newly designed enhanced video learning environment was a superior instructional tool than the common video learning environment in terms students' learning performance. In addition, there was correspondence between graduate students' self-reported self-regulation and observed self-regulation, with those high on seeking/learning information and managing their environment/behavior more likely to engage more in interactive note-taking.     

Inclusion of immersive virtual learning environments and visual control systems to support the learning of students with Asperger syndrome

This paper presents the use of immersive virtual reality systems in the educational intervention with Asperger students. The starting points of this study are features of these students' cognitive style that requires an explicit teaching style supported by visual aids and highly structured environments. The proposed immersive virtual reality system, not only to assess the student's behavior and progress, but also is able to adapt itself to the student's specific needs. Additionally, the immersive reality system is equipped with sensors that can determine certain behaviors of the students. This paper determines the possible inclusion of immersive virtual reality as a support tool and learning strategy in these particular students' intervention. With this objective two task protocols have been defined with which the behavior and interaction situations performed by participant students are recorded. The conclusions from this study talks in favor of the inclusion of these virtual immersive environments as a support tool in the educational intervention of Asperger syndrome students as their social competences and executive functions have improved.     

Unpacking the black-box of students' visual attention in Mathematics and English classrooms: Empirical evidence using mini-video recording gadgets

With the technological improvements of innovative portable recording gadgets, augmented researchers' interest in exploring students' visual attention in their natural and normal occurring classrooms. The purpose of this study was to gauge students' visual attention in their Mathematics and English classrooms. This article reports on a study conducted in three schools in Santiago, Chile, where a sample of 113 randomly selected students wore a mini-video camera mounted on eyeglass in their Mathematics and English lessons. Using Google images, we automatically and objectively examined 723,600 frames from the recordings where the classroom teacher appeared in the students' visual field. The results show that students' visual attention varies depending on four factors: (a) gender of the student, (b) age of the students, whether students are low/high attainers and (d) whether students are in English or Mathematics lessons. Surprisingly, students significantly paid more visual attention in their Mathematics than in English lessons. High attainers were more visually engaged than their low attainers counterparts. Students appeared to be visually engaged differently at different stages in their education. Furthermore, girls were more visually engaged than boys. The results of this study can have enormous practical implications for teachers and teacher education, in order to be better visually engaged with students during teaching.     

Participation,interaction, and academic achievement in an online discussion environment

Though online writing can be beneficial for diverse students in out-of-school environments, there is little consensus on the value of its use in schools. This study examined the online discussion of 48 fifth-grade students and their teachers over the 2009–2010 school year in a public school with large numbers of English learners. We collected students' statewide standardized writing and reading test scores, as well as an archive of all participants' discussion threads during the school year. Students' participation and interaction pattern in the online discussion environment over a school year was examined using growth model analysis and social network analysis. The effect of students' participation on their academic achievement was analyzed using multiple regressions. The results suggest that well-designed online discussions among linguistically diverse upper elementary students can result in increased participation and interaction, leading to language and literacy development.     

A contextual game-based learning approach to improving students' inquiry-based learning performance in social studies courses

Inquiry-based learning, an effective instructional strategy, can be in the form of a problem or task for triggering student engagement. However, how to situate students in meaningful inquiry activities remains to be settled, especially for social studies courses. In this study, a contextual educational computer game is developed to improve students' learning performance based on an inquiry-based learning strategy. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school social studies course to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on the inquiry-based learning performances of students with different learning styles. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach effectively enhanced the students' learning effects in terms of their learning achievement, learning motivation, satisfaction degree and flow state. Furthermore, it is also found that the proposed approach benefited the “active” learning style students more than the “reflective” style students in terms of learning achievement. This suggests the need to provide additional supports to students with particular learning styles in the future.     

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.     

Does agency matter?: Exploring the impact of controlled behaviors within a game-based environment

When students exhibit control and employ a strategic plan of action over a situation they are said to be demonstrating agency (Bandura, 2001). The current work is comprised of two studies designed to investigate how agency manifests within students' choice patterns and ultimately influences self-explanation quality within the game-based system iSTART-2. In Study 1, 75 college students interacted freely within iSTART-2 for 2 h. Random walk and Entropy analyses were used to quantify the amount of control demonstrated in students' choice patterns, as well as to determine the relation between variations in these patterns and self-explanation performance within iSTART-2. Overall, students who demonstrated more controlled choice patterns generated higher quality self-explanations compared to students who exhibited more disordered choice patterns. This link between performance and controlled choice patterns is hypothesized to be driven, in part, by students' experiences of agency. That is, engaging in controlled patterns should be advantageous only when doing so is a result of students' strategic planning. In Study 2, this hypothesis was tested by assigning 70 students to a choice pattern (i.e., controlled or disordered) that had been yoked to students from Study 1, thus removing students' ability to exert agency over the iSTART-2 system. Results revealed no differences in self-explanation quality between the groups assigned to controlled and disordered choice patterns. Collectively, findings from these studies support the notion that success within game-based systems is related to students' ability to exert agency over their learning paths.     

Enhancing skill in constructing scientific explanations using a structured argumentation scaffold in scientific inquiry

Constructing scientific explanations is necessary for students to engage in scientific inquiry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of using a structured argumentation scaffold to enhance skill in constructing scientific explanations in the process of scientific inquiry. The proposed approach is designed to scaffold the following aspects of argumentation: the argumentation process, the explanation structuring, explanation construction, and explanation evaluation. A quasi-experiment was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the structured argumentation scaffold in developing skill in constructing scientific explanations and engaging in electronic dialogues. A web-based collaborative synchronous inquiry system, ASIS (Argumentative Scientific Inquiry System), was utilized to support students as they worked in groups to carry out inquiry tasks. Two intact sixth grade classes (n = 50) participated in the study. The data show that the ASIS with the structured argumentation scaffold helped students significantly improve their skills in constructing scientific explanations, make more dialogue moves for explanation and query, and use more of all four argument components. In addition, the use of warrants, one of the components of an argument, was found to be a critical variable in predicting students' competence with regard to constructing scientific explanations. The results provide references for further research and system development with regard to facilitating students' construction of scientific argumentation and explanations.     

The effects of participation,performance, and interest in a game‐based writing environment

We have observed that many computer‐supported writing environments based on pedagogical strategies have only been designed to incorporate the cognitive aspects, but motivational aspects should also be included. Hence, we theorize that integrating game‐based learning into the writing environment may be a practical approach that can facilitate student participation, not only helping students learn how to write, but also sustaining their willingness to write. In this study, we investigate the effects of the game‐based writing environment on improving students' participation, performance, and interest in writing. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of 2 approaches to writing in language arts at an elementary school. Two hundred forty‐five third grade students participated in the experiment over a period of 1 year. One hundred thirty‐nine students were assigned to an experimental group and learned with a game‐based writing environment, and 106 students were in the contrast group and learned with an online writing environment. The empirical results show that the game‐based writing environment can effectively promote students' writing participation, writing performance, interest in writing, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational self‐management games. Some implications of the experimental results are also discussed.     

Model development in scientific discovery learning with a computer-based physics task

Based on theories of scientific discovery learning (SDL) and conceptual change, this study explores students' preconceptions in the domain of torques in physics and the development of these conceptions while learning with a computer-based SDL task. As a framework we used a three-space theory of SDL and focused on model space, which is supposed to contain the current conceptualization/model of the learning domain, and on its change through hypothesis testing and experimenting. Three questions were addressed: (1) What are students' preconceptions of torques before learning about this domain? To do this a multiple-choice test for assessing students' models of torques was developed and given to secondary school students (N = 47) who learned about torques using computer simulations. (2) How do students' models of torques develop during SDL? Working with simulations led to replacement of some misconceptions with physically correct conceptions. (3) Are there differential patterns of model development and if so, how do they relate to students’ use of the simulations? By analyzing individual differences in model development, we found that an intensive use of the simulations was associated with the acquisition of correct conceptions. Thus, the three-space theory provided a useful framework for understanding conceptual change in SDL.     

Using e-portfolios to facilitate university students' knowledge management performance: E-portfolio vs. non-portfolio

The purpose of the present study was to use e-portfolios to enhance university students' knowledge management (KM) performance. Participants were 88 university students majoring in information technology. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to examine the differences in KM performance between an experimental group (a total of 43 students learning with e-portfolio) and a control group (a total of 45 students learning without e-portfolio), and the covariate variable was students' grade of the last semester. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the performances of overall KM and five KM aspects (knowledge sharing, innovation, acquisition, application, and accumulation). This showed that e-portfolios significantly facilitated KM performance.     

Exploring students' learning effectiveness and attitude in Group Scribbles‐supported collaborative reading activities: a study in the primary classroom

Improving students' reading comprehension is of significance. In this study, collaborative learning supported by Group Scribbles (GS), a networked technology, was integrated into a primary reading class. Forty‐seven 10‐year‐old students from two 4th grade classes participated in the study. Experimental and control groups were established to investigate the effectiveness of GS‐supported collaborative learning in enhancing students' reading comprehension. The results affirmed the effectiveness of the intervention designed. In the experiment group, students' learning attitudes, motivation and interest were enhanced as well. Further analyses were done to probe students' interaction processes in the networked collaborative classroom and different collaboration patterns and behaviours were identified. Based on the findings obtained, implications for future learning design to empower L1 learning were elaborated.