Collaborative Learning Settings Research Articles

Formal, informal, and non-formal learning as analytic categories for research in music education

Formal, informal, and non-formal learning as analytic categories for research in music education

Physics Education for Special Needs Students: A Descriptive Analysis

This essay examines the difficulties and possibilities involved in teaching physics to students with special needs. It talks about how important it is for physics courses to use inclusive pedagogies and teaching practices that are designed to meet the different needs of their students. The study looks at different strategies for modifying physics curricula, instructional strategies, and assessment procedures to fit the needs of students with special needs. It does this by reviewing relevant literature and doing empirical research. It draws attention to how important collaborative learning settings, assistive technology, and customized instruction are to ensuring that all students have equitable access to physics education. The report also addresses how professional development and teacher training might improve teachers' ability to successfully support students with exceptional needs. It highlights how crucial it is to promote policies and cultivate an inclusive culture across physics education communities. This study attempts to provide guidance and insights for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders trying to establish inclusive and supportive learning environments for children with special needs in physics education by combining current research and best practices. It emphasizes how important it is to acknowledge and recognize each learner's unique talents and abilities in order to support their engagement, success, and mastery of physics.

Comparative performance of undergraduate students in micro-teaching using Telegram and WhatsApp in collaborative learning settings

The growing concerns to accommodate large classroom sizes, lack of microteaching laboratory and inadequacy of time for every student to present and be properly assessed has affected the performance of students in micro-teaching in Nigeria. This therefore calls for different innovative approaches backed up by technology to ameliorate the problem. Thus, this study checked the ­­­comparative performance of undergraduate students in micro-teaching using Telegram and WhatsApp in collaborative learning settings in Gombe State, Nigeria. A sample of 282 students enrolled on Telegram and WhatsApp from Federal University Kashere and Gombe State University, respectively was purposively selected for the study. The two sampled groups were assigned into experimental group I (Telegram) and experimental group II (WhatsApp) in collaborative learning settings using a simple random sampling technique. The instruments for the study comprised of micro-teaching achievement test validated by experts in the field of educational technology and curriculum studies, where a split-half method of reliability was used to obtain a figure of 0.91 using Pearson product moment correlation. Descriptive statistics involving mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while inferential statistics involving an independent sample t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that while the students in both Telegram and WhatsApp platforms performed better in the post-test, a significant difference was obtained in the achievement and retention of the two groups in favor of WhatsApp. It was therefore recommended that lecturers should deploy the use of Telegram and WhatsApp in collaborative learning settings to cover for large classroom sizes and lack of micro-teaching laboratory.

Annexation of Crowdsourcing Technique to Aid the Research Pedagogy

The synergistic integration of crowdsourcing into teaching-learning pedagogy is explored in this extensive trialing, which presents a coherent story derived from several dimensions, including mass engagement, collaborative pedagogy approaches, and an experimental project evaluating pedagogical impact on preschool-aged children. The research article explains how crowdsourcing may be revolutionary, highlighting its benefits for information collecting, problem solving, and project execution. Moving from traditional teacher-centric to Student – centered approaches, smoothly transitioning into the field of teaching and learning pedagogy. The study covers the constructivist, collaborative, integrative, reflective, and inquiry-based learning pedagogies. It emphasizes how important pedagogy is in encouraging collaborative learning settings, removing monotony, and accommodating various learning preferences. An experimental project aimed at evaluating the effects of teaching-learning pedagogy on young children in preschool. College students mediated contacts between high school students and non-digitalized preschoolers by using human networks as mediators. The approach demonstrates the viability and effectiveness of crowdsourcing for research in education while emphasizing the need for cautious execution, middleman training, and quality assurance.

Designing for collaborative learning in immersive virtual reality: a systematic literature review

Immersive learning technologies such as virtual reality have long been deemed as the next generation of digital learning environments. There is a limited number of studies addressing how immersive technologies can be designed, applied, and studied in collaborative learning settings. This paper presents a systematic review of empirical studies reporting on use of immersive virtual reality in collaborative learning within educational and professional learning settings. 11 studies have been grouped and coded in a textual narrative synthesis, outlining the pedagogical concepts behind the learning design, as well as the design of virtual reality environments and the collaborative learning activities in which the technology is employed. The results suggest that collaborative learning in virtual reality can currently be conceptualised as a shared experience in an immersive, virtually mediated space, where there is a shared goal/problem which learners must attend to collaboratively. This conceptualisation implies a need to design technologies, environments, and activities that support participation and social interaction, fostering collaborative learning processes. Based on the outlined conceptualisation, we present a series of recommendations for designing for collaborative learning in immersive virtual reality. The paper concludes that collaborative learning in virtual reality creates a practice- and reflection space, where learning is perceived as engaging, without the risk of interfering with actual practices. Current designs however struggle with usability, realism, and facilitating social interaction. The paper further identifies a need for future research into what happens within virtual reality, rather than only looking at post-virtual reality evaluations.

Game-making and conflicts in collaborative learning settings: a synthesis

Game-making and conflicts in collaborative learning settings: a synthesis

Gender difference in undergraduates’ micro-teaching performance using Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings

Gender difference has continued to influence achievement and retention of students due to inconsistencies in performance, which troubles researchers. This therefore calls for different approaches to ameliorate this problem by deploying the use of Telegram and WhatsApp in collaborative learning settings in order to bride those gender gaps since technology serves as a leveler. This study examined gender difference on achievement and retention of students in microteaching using Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings. A sample of 282 students enrolled on Telegram and WhatsApp from two universities in Gombe State, Nigeria, was purposively selected for the study, where the two sampled groups were assigned into two experimental groups. The instrument used in this study is the micro-teaching achievement test validated by experts in the field of educational technology and curriculum studies, where a split-half method of reliability was used to obtain a figure of 0.91 using Pearson product moment correlation. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while inferential statistics involving an independent sample t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using Telegram platform (t=2.571, p>0.05); there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using WhatsApp platform (t=3.671, p>0.05); there is no significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught using Telegram platform (t=5.274, p>0.05). However, there is a significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught using WhatsApp platform in favor of the female students (t=4.071,p<0.05). It is hereby recommended that lecturers should deploy the use of Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings during micro-teaching in order to bridge the individual differences occasioned by gender since technology has the potential to serve as a leveler and also be able to bridge gender differences.

Students’ Engagement in Digital Mind Mapping-Supported Collaborative Learning during the Post-Pandemic Era

Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of digital mind-mapping in improving student learning outcomes, creativity, critical thinking skills, and motivation. However, past studies rarely focused on student engagement when exploring the implementation of collaborative digital mind mapping in higher education. This study explored student engagement in a digital mind-mapping-supported collaborative classroom. The study was qualitative descriptive in nature, involving twenty fourth-semester students from a private university in Indonesia. The data were collected through observation and interview. The findings showed that students engaged cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally in the collaborative mind-mapping activity. The findings mostly describe student-student and student-task engagement. Therefore, further investigations are needed to examine student-teacher engagement in a mind-mapping-supported collaborative learning setting.

Effect of Collaborative Learning on Conceptual Understanding ability in Mathematics among 5th Grade Neglected Children

Conceptual understanding is a fundamental component of learning as it allows students to develop a deep and meaningful understanding of a subject. This is especially true in subjects like mathematics, where understanding the principles and logic behind formulas and equations is crucial particularly for neglected children. The objectives of the study were to investigate the effect of collaborative learning on the conceptual understanding ability of 5th grade neglected children in mathematics and to explore the beliefs of students about mathematics and the teaching of mathematics in collaborative learning settings. This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study involved 60 students of fifth-grade from Child Protection School Lahore, divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group received collaborative learning treatment, while the control group used traditional learning methods for two weeks. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using pre and post-tests and structured interviews. Results showed that the experimental group performed better on mathematic achievement test than the control group, and their beliefs about mathematics improved. The research findings indicated that collaborative learning is a more efficient approach for enhancing the conceptual understanding abilities of 5th grade students compared to traditional learning methods. The study recommended the widespread adoption of this approach for educational rehabilitation of neglected children throughout the Punjab.

Beyond Gradients: Exploiting Adversarial Priors in Model Inversion Attacks

Collaborative machine learning settings such as federated learning can be susceptible to adversarial interference and attacks. One class of such attacks is termed model inversion attacks , characterised by the adversary reverse-engineering the model into disclosing the training data. Previous implementations of this attack typically only rely on the shared data representations, ignoring the adversarial priors, or require that specific layers are present in the target model, reducing the potential attack surface. In this work, we propose a novel context-agnostic model inversion framework that builds on the foundations of gradient-based inversion attacks, but additionally exploits the features and the style of the data controlled by an in-the-network adversary. Our technique outperforms existing gradient-based approaches both qualitatively and quantitatively across all training settings, showing particular effectiveness against the collaborative medical imaging tasks. Finally, we demonstrate that our method achieves significant success on two downstream tasks: sensitive feature inference and facial recognition spoofing.

Exploring the relationship between social media knowledge platform (SMKP) using smart devices and the impact on students’ academic performances

This research study is an attempt to investigate and recommend the applications and usefulness of social media as a knowledge sharing platform using smart mobile devices and students’ academic performances. Research literature reveals that further examination of this idea is a must as it is increasingly becoming an integral part and a current mandate for digital-era learners. This study is exploratory based on learners’ data which includes students from foundation, junior and senior courses at a university. The objective was to cognize learners’ perceptions on collaborative learning while using applications of social media knowledge platform and smart mobile devices. Structural Model approach is followed to validate the data and undertake the required analysis. The resulting analysis shows that a significantly positive relation exists between the available platforms of knowledge applications using smart devices and its substantial impact on students’ overall performances. In addition, it could be observed that generally students have positive and valuable perception on the use of social media knowledge platform and smart mobile devices in collaborative learning settings. Moreover, such settings encourage students-students’ interactions, studentsteachers’ interactions, and the growing trends of students to online experts’ interactions. Furthermore, it was noticed that these interactions improve students’ engagement with such platforms using smart devices, which consequently has significant positive impact on students’ academic performances. The findings propose the inculcation in students the positive role of the use of social media knowledge platforms using smart devices so to encourage collaborative learning, to enhance active learning, to be more dynamic & engaging, to broaden their domain-knowledge, and to promote academic researchoriented learning, which are all crucial for graduate employability.

MDNN: Predicting Student Engagement via Gaze Direction and Facial Expression in Collaborative Learning

Prediction of students’ engagement in a Collaborative Learning setting is essential to improve the quality of learning. Collaborative learning is a strategy of learning through groups or teams. When cooperative learning behavior occurs, each student in the group should participate in teaching activities. Researchers showed that students who are actively involved in a class gain more. Gaze behavior and facial expression are important nonverbal indicators to reveal engagement in collaborative learning environments. Previous studies require the wearing of sensor devices or eye tracker devices, which have cost barriers and technical interference for daily teaching practice. In this paper, student engagement is automatically analyzed based on computer vision. We tackle the problem of engagement in collaborative learning using a multi-modal deep neural network (MDNN). We combined facial expression and gaze direction as two individual components of MDNN to predict engagement levels in collaborative learning environments. Our multi-modal solution was evaluated in a real collaborative environment. The results show that the model can accurately predict students’ performance in the collaborative learning environment.

Future Competencies and E-Tutor Competencies: A Chance for Higher Education Institutions to Support Their Student Staff

Purpose: E-tutors often participate in collaborative online international learning (COIL) settings and guide students in group work and related learning processes. They moderate, organize, and observe the group and individual learning processes and are often students’ first point of contact. This support requires several competencies, which are also largely reflected in the so-called future skills. Thus, it seems sensible to examine these competencies more closely and promote them to enhance the course experience and support for students in COIL settings on the one hand and to make student e-tutors fit for the modern working world on the other. Study design/methodology/approach: As a starting point for this project, a comprehensive systematic literature analysis on e-tutor competencies and qualifications was conducted in Langesee (2023). A competency ranking and task-based competency profile for e-tutors in higher education were developed during this research. To investigate the validity and practicability of these artifacts, an evaluation was conducted with 16 international experts and practitioners (e-tutors) using a questionnaire. Findings: The competencies identified in Langesee (2023), the ranking, and the profile created were recognized as helpful and practical. Additional comments from respondents allowed both artifacts to be revised and expanded. The three most relevant competencies of the nine detected are communication, pedagogical and social competencies. Originality/value: The resulting artifacts can be used in the next step as a basis for a self-evaluation tool (SET), enabling e-tutors to assess their competence equipment. Based on this, individual instruments will be recommended to initiate possible improvements.

A design thinking approach to developing girls’ creative self-efficacy in STEM

The aim of this study is to examine the process by which adolescent girls develop self-efficacy related to creative thinking skills and apply such skills to problems in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields during a human-centered design thinking workshop. Design thinking is a popular framework that educators have applied in a variety of K-12 extracurricular contexts to bring more creativity into STEM learning. The study employs qualitative methods examining 22 individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with participants of the design thinking workshop. The findings show that participants felt the workshop improved their creative self-efficacy in STEM. The participants reported increased confidence to articulate their thoughts in a collaborative learning setting and a greater interest in pursuing a STEM career.

Leaders and Followers Identified by Emotional Mimicry During Collaborative Learning: A Facial Expression Recognition Study on Emotional Valence

This article explores the potential of emotional mimicry in identifying the leader and follower students in collaborative learning settings. Our data include video recorded interactions of 24 high school students who worked together in groups of three during a collaborative exam. A facial emotions recognition method was used to capture participants’ facial emotions during the collaborative work. Cross-recurrence quantification analysis was applied on the detected facial emotions to see the level and direction of emotional mimicry among the dyads in the same groups. In order to validate the cross-recurrence quantification analysis results, student interactions in terms of leading or following the task were video coded. Our findings showed that the leaders and followers identified by cross-recurrence quantification analysis findings matched the leaders and followers identified by the video coding in 70 percent of the dyadic interactions across the collaborating groups. The current findings show that video-based facial emotions recognition as a method can add to collaborative learning research, especially explaining some social, and affective dynamics about it. The study further discusses the possible variables that might confound the relationship between emotional mimicry and leader-follower interactions during collaboration.

The association of perceived sociability and social intelligence with loneliness in online learning among nursing students

BackgroundAs a result of the decrease in socialization levels in computer-supported collaborative learning settings and/or interactions in social environments during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the adverse influence on the social intelligence development of nursing students could trigger loneliness. ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to evaluate the association of perceived sociability and social intelligence on loneliness in online learning among nursing students in Turkey. DesignDescriptive, correlational and predictive study. Setting and participantsA total of 246 nursing students in the Nursing Department of a state university in the Istanbul province of Turkey were included. MethodsData were collected using the Participant Information Form, Sociability Scale, UCLA Loneliness Scale-8 (ULS-8) for the Adolescents, and Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) between November 2020 and December 2020. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of loneliness. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsThe total mean Sociability Scale score was 23.54 ± 7.51 (range: 10–46). The total mean TSIS score was 74.15 ± 9.98 (range: 46–105) and the total mean ULS-8 was 13.91 ± 4.98 (range: 7–27). Perceived sociability in online learning (β = −0.321, p < .001), and social intelligence (β = −0.347, p < .001) were significant negative predictors (R2 = 0.269, p < .001) of loneliness. ConclusionPerceived sociability in online learning and social intelligence was associated with the level of loneliness of this population during online learning.

Teamwork competency and satisfaction in online group project-based engineering course: The cross-level moderating effect of collective efficacy and flipped instruction

This study examined the relationship between students’ teamwork competency and satisfaction in a synchronous online flipped group project-based course, focusing on the possibility of group collective efficacy and flipped learning to moderate this relationship. We collected data from 19 teams (N = 75 college engineering students) at a science and technology university in Cebu, central Philippines, through a questionnaire survey over a 12-week synchronous online course. Multi-level hierarchical linear modeling test of hypotheses revealed a significant positive relationship between teamwork competency and satisfaction. Similarly, group collective efficacy recorded a significant relationship with satisfaction. At the team level, group collective efficacy and flipped learning moderated the relationship between teamwork competency and satisfaction. Learners in groups with high collective efficacy and online flipped learning showed a stronger relationship than those with low efficacy and conventional online instruction. The findings and discussions provide practical implications and possible interventions teachers could apply to enhance collective efficacy and boost learning satisfaction in synchronous collaborative online learning settings.

Exploring Pre-University Students’ Construction of Reasoned Argumentation during Computer - Supported Collaborative Discussions Using Sequential Analysis

The prominent role of reasoning skills in predicting academic outcomes is clearly evident over the years in that its inculcation in various face-to-face learning contexts has become progressively dominant, including in the collaborative learning (CL) settings. The pandemic crisis, however, challenged traditional learning approaches to shift to an online mode overnight resulting in dramatic changes of learning delivery whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Though impact of CL-based approaches in promoting reasoning skills have been well-documented over the years, a systematic analysis of learners’ behavioural patterns of argumentation and reasoning in a virtual collaborative learning environment is yet to be concretely established. The current study therefore sought to investigate the development of reasoned argumentation skills among pre- university students with mixed language abilities, using open-ending short stories via a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Adopting the case study research design by applying a mixed-methods approach through both descriptive and sequential analyses, 12 pre-university students from a public research university served as participants of this study. The results show that language ability has a strong predictive factor on reasoned argumentation skills and there is an established tendency of the participants to produce constructive arguments over defensive or challenging viewpoints to alternative ideas. This calls for future studies to further investigate predictive factors of this tendency and to further ascertain the predictive role of language-rich discussions in facilitating various higher order thinking skills among learners.

Development of a Learning Model for Large Class Cohorts to Strengthen Learning Outcomes of Students Based on Differentiated Instruction

We propose a new approach to classroom learning based on sequential numeral-division. It builds on the concept of trichotomy – division of students based on creamy-level, middle-level and weaker-level students -- proposed by the present authors. A sequenced series of formative assessments can map student progress and achievement, particularly in the case of weaker students. The idea behind the development of this model is to study if weak students perform better on critical-thinking tests in a collaborative learning setting rather than when they study individually. We propose a mathematical model to measure group activity/achievement, which is a complex function of several parameters. We collect data on different parameters for validation of the model in the near future.

The affordances and limitations of collaborative science simulations: The analysis from multiple evidences

Recent advancements in Web and HTML5 techniques have made collaborative simulations able to support a shared workspace and more synchronous collaboration in a single simulation. However, previous studies show divergent findings regarding the effects of the new features of collaborative simulations. To better understand the affordances and limitations of collaborative simulations, this study analyzed how 64 students learned in two different collaborative learning settings: individual-based simulation and collaborative simulation. To better reveal how students attended to different parts of the simulation, the researchers collected eye movement data and analyzed students’ discourse, perceptions of collaboration and learning performance. The findings revealed that the two groups demonstrated similar levels of learning gains. However, the students who used the collaborative simulation displayed lower levels and less frequency of individual attention to the simulation than those using the individual-based simulation. However, the joint attention and discourse analysis suggests that students learning with the collaborative simulation are more likely to engage in effective collaborative learning while demonstrating more constructive discourse threads than those using the individual-based simulation. The findings support that the collaborative simulations transformed the learning experience into a cohesive collaborative learning process. This study also found that the relationship between the joint attention and the discourse features as well as the perceived collaborative experience are not decisive but are influenced by the features of the collaborative learning environment. This article discusses the implications of the use of collaborative simulations and eye movement for supporting collaborative learning, and addresses the direction for future studies.