The Meteorological Station as an Out-of-School Learning Environment: A Mixed-Methods Study

This study reports on the investigation of the effect of mobile assisted learning environment on academic achievement, acceptance of mobile learning tools and cognitive load of EFL students. This study used a mixed methods approach which involves the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to identify the effect of mobile learning in a foreign language learning environment. Quantitative data were collected from 63 foreign language learners via an academic achievement test, cognitive load scale and mobile learning tools acceptance scale, before and after a six-week intervention period. Following the intervention, eight students from the experimental group answered open-ended questions about their experience during group interviews. Results showed a significant difference in academic achievement and mobile learning tools acceptance level of students in favor of the experimental group. The study also showed that although the students learning a foreign language in mobile assisted learning environment were not cognitively overloaded, students in the control group were. The themes emerged from the qualitative data point to the positive and negative sides of the mobile-assisted learning environment.

The present study aimed to examine the possible influence of writing-to-learn activities on students’ academic performance and achievement in social studies course and to collect student opinions in this regard. This study was carried out with a total of 83 (43 in the experimental group and 40 in the control group) 5th grade students studying in a middle school affiliated to the Turkish Ministry of National Education in Erzurum in the 2021/22 academic year. A test consisting of 20 questions was administered to the control and experimental groups in order to measure academic achievement prior to carrying out the activities. The experimental group was being instructed through the use of writing-to-learn activities, while the control group, in line with the curriculum in-use. Following the activities, the control and experimental groups were both administered the post-tests. At the end of the implementation part of the study, a focus group interview was conducted with 8 randomly selected students from the classes involved in the experimental group. Quantitative data were analysed with descriptive statistics, and qualitative data with content analysis. The results obtained indicated a statistically significance in favour of the experimental group when the average post-test scores of the experimental group students and those of the control group students were compared. Furthermore, the rest of the data revealed that the writing-to-learn activities were favoured by the majority of the students, and regarded as having positive aspects.

Based on the China Education Tracking Survey (CEPS) data, a structural equation model was used to study the mechanism of non cognitive abilities on academic achievement of middle school students. The results showed that: (1) there was a significant correlation between non cognitive ability, parental involvement, teacher support, and academic achievement variables; (2) Non cognitive abilities have a significant positive impact on student academic achievement, with pleasant traits in non cognitive abilities having a greater direct impact on academic achievement compared to learning perseverance traits; (3) Parental involvement plays an independent mediating role in the impact of non cognitive abilities on the academic achievement of junior high school students; (4) Teacher support and parental involvement play a chain mediating role in the impact of non cognitive abilities on the academic achievement of middle school students. The results of this study indicate that non cognitive abilities not only have a significant positive impact on the academic achievement of middle school students, but can also have an indirect impact on their academic achievement through two pathways: the mediating effect of parental involvement and the chain mediating effect of teacher support and parental involvement.

This study aimed to examine the effects of orienteering practices on the sixth-grade students' academic achievement and map literacy in social studies. As one of the mixed-method designs, this study adopted an experimental (intervention) design, which provides a means of integrating the qualitative approach into an experimental process. Fifty-three sixth-grade students from a secondary school in the eastern region of Turkey comprised the study sample. The study included an experimental group (n= 26) and a control group (n= 27). In the experimental group, the "People, Places, and Environments" unit was taught using orienteering techniques, whereas, in the control group, standard curriculum-based instruction was conveyed. The quantitative data were collected through the Academic Achievement Test (AAT) and Map Literacy Test (MLT), while a semi-structured interview protocol was used to gather the qualitative data. The experimental and control groups were administered the AAT and MLT as pre- and post-tests, and the SPSS 22.0 program was used for the analysis. The students' opinions in the experimental group regarding the orienteering practices were taken through a semi-structured interview protocol. The data obtained from these interviews were subjected to content analysis. The results show no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups on the pre-test regarding academic achievement and map literacy levels; however, there was a substantial difference in favor of the experimental group on the post-test. Additionally, the analysis of qualitative data showed that all of the stu

We conducted this research to investigate the impact of the Quantum Learning Model (QLM) on the academic achievement, attitudes toward mathematics, and anxiety levels of seventh-grade middle school students. A total of fifty-six 7th-grade students participated in the research. The research used a quasi-experimental model with a pretest-posttest control group. The experimental group used QLM during the research process, while the control group used the current learning approach. We conducted the research for 28 lesson hours. We collected data using attitude, anxiety scale, and academic achievement tests. We applied tests to both groups before and after the experimental procedure. We used independent-samples-T-tests and paired-samples-T tests in the analyses. We also evaluated the journals of students and the researcher. Accordingly, QLM had a positive effect on middle school students' academic achievement in mathematics. The posttest mean scores of attitudes decreased significantly in the control group. The experimental group experienced a decrease in post-test mean scores of anxiety, which was not statistically significant, whereas the control group experienced a statistically significant increase in post-test scores. Students and teachers have expressed positive opinions about the use of note-taking and mind maps, which enhance the durability of learning, the establishment of a classroom environment and atmosphere conducive to QLM, and the implementation of celebration activities.

? 1978 by The University of Chicago. 0013-5984/78/7803-0010$00.88 Pupils who fall behind their classmates academically fall further behind each year they remain in school (1). Part of the explanation for their continuing failure to keep pace with other pupils may lie in the fact that they spend less time on academic tasks than other pupils. The reason for such self-defeating behavior may be the desire to maintain self-esteem. If a pupil expends less effort on schoolwork than the average pupil, any resulting failure may be easier to accept. Pupils who try but fail may conclude that they do not have the ability to succeed. Pupils' involvement in tasks would seem to be a necessary condition for school achievement. If pupils are to master material, they must engage in it and react to it-read, make response. Indeed there are data to suggest that achievement is related to time for learning and opportunity to learn (2, 3). Similarly, there are data to suggest that learning is also positively related to low rates of time lost because of poor management of classrooms, for example, lengthy transitions (4). The major purpose of the present study was to find out whether pupil involvement was different for high, middle, and low achievers. Also, we wanted to find out whether pupils generally were more involved in some subjects than in others and whether certain types of classroom activities were associated with higher or with lower levels of pupil involvement. We selected two different types of schools to find out whether pupils' characteristics affect involvement. School 1

This study aimed to investigate the effect of instruction designed according to the ARCS model enriched with Web 2.0 tools on the mathematics achievement and motivation of secondary school students and to examine student opinions regarding the applied instruction process. A mixed-methods approach was employed in the study since both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. To support quantitative data with qualitative data, a sequential explanatory design was chosen from mixed-methods designs. The research was conducted in the 2022–2023 academic year with the participation of 40 7th grade students enrolled in a public school in Niğde province. The research process was planned for 10 weeks, including a pretest administration in the first week, an eight-week intervention, and a posttest administration in the last week. In the experimental group, a mathematics instruction plan designed according to the ARCS model enriched with Web 2.0 tools was implemented, while in the control group, only the existing mathematics instruction plan was implemented. Quantitative data were collected using the ratio, proportion and percentage achievement tests and the mathematics motivation scale. Qualitative data were collected through focus group interviews with experimental group students. Data analysis was conducted, which included independent samples t-tests, paired samples t-tests, MANOVAs, and content analysis. The findings obtained from this study revealed that teaching with the ARCS model enriched with Web 2.0 tools had a positive effect on students' academic achievement. When the sub-dimensions of motivation were analyzed, no significant difference was found between the groups in the posttest motivation scores, but most of the participant students in the focus group interviews expressed positive opinions about the process and mentioned the effectiveness of the process. This study provides important information about the effectiveness of integrating Web 2.0 tools into the ARCS model in secondary school mathematics education in terms of the effectiveness of the teaching process and its contributions to students' achievement.

The aim of the study is to determine the effect of the student-designed social studies journal on the academic achievement and attitudes of 7th grade students. The research was carried out using a sequential mixed-method research design. In the 2018-2019 academic year, a total of 33 students in the experimental and control groups, studying in the 7th grade of the state secondary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Central Anatolian Region of Türkiye, constituted the participants of the study. In the study, data were collected using Social Studies Attitude Scale, Academic Achievement Test and Semi-Structured Interview Form. In the research study, academic achievement test and attitude scale towards social studies were implemented as a pre-test. After the pre-tests were completed, the student-designed social studies journal was started to be prepared with the experimental group. It was aimed to publish the learning outcome-oriented Social Studies journal by the experimental group as three issues. The application content of the research was limited to the learning outcomes, skills and values of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd units of the Social Studies 7th grade curriculum. In this process, the normal course process continued with the control group. The experimental group was given activities such as research, examination, drama, interview, poem, story, letter, and cartoon related to the learning outcomes in the first three units of the 7th grade social studies curriculum, and the lessons in the was taught as prescribed by the curriculum during this process. In addition, the attitude scale towards the social studies lesson was applied to the students in the control and experimental groups as a post-test. Finally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students in the experimental group. Since the distribution was normal in the analysis of quantitative data, t-test was used and content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that the student-designed social studies journal has an effect on academic achievement and attitude towards the course. In addition, it has been stated that the student-designed social studies journal is important in increasing motivation towards the course.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the argumentation-based science learning approach on students’ academic achievements and examine student views about use of this approach in social studies. We used a mixed methods research design to document changes as a result of an argumentation-based science learning approach implementation. The participants were 94 seventh grade students from three different classrooms of a middle school in Erzurum, Turkey. We developed the Population in our Country Academic Achievement Test to collect quantitative data before and after the implementation, and used a semi-structured interview form to collect quantitative data after the implementation. Using descriptive, one-way ANOVA, and multiple comparison Tukey test statistical data analysis methods, we analyzed the quantitative data. Then, we used content analysis method to analyze the qualitative data. Results of the quantitative data analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference between academic achievements mean scores of the students in the experimental and control groups in the pre-test. However, after the implementation, there were statistically significant differences between groups indicating that academic achievement mean scores of students in the experimental group was statistically higher than those students in the control groups in the post-test. Results of the qualitative data analysis indicated the argumentation-based science learning approach activities helped students understand subjects better, facilitated their learning, provided permanent learning opportunities, increased their interest and attitudes towards the course, and enhanced their success in social studies. These results suggested that implementing the argumentation-based science learning approach in social studies was effective in enhancing students’ academic achievement and resulted in developing positive views of students about the approach

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact that meaningful watershed educational experiences (MWEE) had on the academic achievement of middle school students. A quantitative, ex post facto causal-comparative design was used. The sample population consisted of 1067 8th-grade students across four middle schools within the Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) region. The study utilized students’ academic achievement scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) and compared the scores of those with exposure to MWEE and those without to examine the difference in academic achievement on the English language arts (ELA), math, and science sections of the PSSA. Using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), the data was analyzed. The findings demonstrate a statistically significant difference between students’ PSSA scores based on students’ MWEE participation status. Implications for practice and future research are offered.

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In the study, the effect of social studies diary activities applied to seventh grade middle school students on students' social studies achievement was examined. In the research, which was carried out as a quantitative method, static group pretest-posttest design was used from quasi-experimental designs. The study group consisted of 60 middle school seventh grade students. Data were collected with the Social Studies Achievement Test. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test and dependent groups t-test statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. There was no significant difference between the mean pretest achievement scores of the experimental group and the control group. There was also no significant difference between the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups. However, when the experimental and control groups were analyzed within themselves, it was found that there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest achievement scores of both groups. It was concluded that the posttest achievement scores of the experimental group differed according to gender, whereas the posttest scores of the control group did not differ according to gender.

In this study, the effects of blended learning on the middle school students’ academic achievement level and product evaluation scores were investigated. Blended learning provides more effective learning outcome gains through enriching todays’ developing Web Technologies with learning environments. This study was carried out with a total of 53 students enrolled in the experimental group and control group in the 6th grade classrooms during the 2014/2015 school year in a middle school in southwest part of Turkey. The intervention lasted 7 weeks. During the seven weeks, the unit of “problem solving, computer programming and development of Software product”, covered in Educational technologies and Software course, is taught through blended learning environment. The experimental group was taught using blended learning environment which supported with enriched web technologies (such as video-conference, Learning Management System, Discussion blogs , etc.). Whereas the experimental group was given access to all these enriched contents that are presented to the control group only during the classroom environment through present teaching methods.The design of the study includes quantitative method. We collected quantitative data such as academic achievement test and product evaluation scale. Academic achievement test and product evaluation scale were used as quantitative data collection sources. Quantitative data was collected through the evaluation of students’ projects that they developed during the process of the study and the academic achievement tests. During the data analysis phase, independent t-test, frequency and ANOVA tests were used. As a result of this study, it is concluded that blended learning environment had generated a significant difference in students’ academic achievement on behalf of experimental group. Implications of the study for the educational environments were discussed.

This study examines the structural relationship among motivation, deep learning approach, and academic achievement of middle school students in Turkey. Participants were 746 seventh grade and eighth grade students enrolled in public middle schools in Sinop and Ankara, Turkey. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and GPA scores of participants were used in the study. Data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling. The results of the study revealed that motivational variables are related with the use of deep learning approach which is related with higher GPA. Path analyses demonstrated that deep learning approach fully mediated the relationship between students' motivational variables and academic achievement. Self-efficacy, task value, and intrinsic goal orientation as the indirect effects through deep learning approach on academic achievement were strong predictors in the model.

To identify the characteristics of joint displays illustrating the data integration in mixed-methods nursing studies and to make recommendations for effective use of joint displays for the integration of qualitative and quantitative data in mixed-methods studies. Discussion Paper. We have completed this paper as a part of a mixed-methods prevalence review of 190 studies published in nursing journals. We searched 10 nursing journals and three databases from January 2014-April 2018, additional journal search was performed from May-September 2018. We reviewed 17 studies that used joint displays as the method of data integration. Using a joint display typology, checklists, summary tables, and personal experiences of using joint displays, we evaluated the quality of displays. Nurse researchers should use advanced data integration approaches to increase the rigour of the mixed-methods studies. Joint displays can enable nurse researchers to efficiently integrate and synthesize the qualitative and quantitative data in mixed-methods studies. However, nurse researchers should clearly label the type and title of the display, include both qualitative and quantitative data and interpretations, and highlight the mixed-methods interpretations as confirmed, divergent, or expanded in the displays. Joint displays are adopted for data integration in nursing mixed-methods studies. Improvements are required concerning data presentation in the displays. Researchers should provide clear titles and supporting data and inferences and identify the meta-inferences by assessing the fit between quantitative and qualitative data. Despite the importance of integration in mixed methods, reviews indicated a consistent lack of integration in nursing research. Joint displays are structured frameworks used for the integration and synthesis of the qualitative and quantitative data at the analysis and interpretation levels. The discussed typology and characteristics of displays can enable nurse researchers to enhance the quality and presentation of integrated results in mixed-methods studies.