Instructional Interactions Research Articles

Measuring learner–content interaction in digitally augmented learning experiences

ABSTRACT Distance education theories indicate the importance of learner–content interaction and discuss it in conjunction with learner–instructor and learner–learner interaction. The measures of learner–content interaction are inconsistent and often measure learner–learner and learner–instructor interaction only. Using content analysis, this study examined 107 manuscripts to understand how learner–content interaction is currently measured to identify what constructs are being considered and the measurement tools being used. Results report 113 different measurement tools in use, showing a large variety of measurement items. Most tools were designed for specific cases and not built upon other relevant tools. A universal learner–content interaction measurement tool must consider being proactive; having strong pedagogical base, learner agency, motivation, and engagement; and measure a variety of learning experiences.

Interaction in asynchronous discussion boards: a campus-wide analysis to better understand regular and substantive interaction.

Discussion boards can provide a glimpse into the regular and substantive interaction required in online courses. Advances in technology and an increased interest in learning analytics now provides researchers with billions of data points about instructor and student interaction within a learning management system (LMS). This study used LMS data to explore the frequency of interaction between instructors and students in discussion boards in online courses at one institution. Overall, 415 courses were analyzed spanning two semesters. Results from the study found that the average number of posts by an instructor was 32.9. The average instructor interaction was 1.49 instructor posts per student. 23% of courses had no instructor posts. Student posts averaged 470 per course and the average posts per student was 19.9. Based on the discussion board activity, the most discussion interaction occurred during the first two weeks of the semester. Results also suggested that there is no relationship between student satisfaction and the number of total posts in a course. The paper concludes with implications for research and practice.

Exploring Mixed-Initiative Interaction for Learning with Situated Instruction in Cognitive Agents

Human-agent interaction for learning with instruction canbe viewed on a continuum of instructor/agent control. At one extreme are systems that learn by instructor-driveninteractions, such as learning by demonstration, examples,or imitation. The other extreme of the continuum isoccupied by systems where instructor interaction is limited to responding to the questions posed by the agent or toproviding feedback on agent’s performance. There are advantages to an approach that explores a mixed-initiative instructional dialog. We describe an approach to mixed-initiative interaction based on collaborative discourse theory that allows Soar agents to learn from situated instruction.

Exploring the nature and focus of feedback when using video playback in gynecology laparoscopy training

BackgroundFeedback about intraoperative performance remains a cornerstone of surgical training. Video playback offers one potential method for more effective feedback to surgical residents. More research is needed to better understand this method. This study explores the nature of instructional interactions and feedback in the operating room (OR) and when using video playback during post-operative review in obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN) training.MethodThis case study occurred between September 2016 and February 2017. Three OBGYN residents and five OBGYN supervising surgeons were involved in six laparoscopic cases. Intraoperative and video playback dialogues were recorded and analysed, the former deductively using codes identified from published literature, and the latter both deductively, using the same codes, and inductively, with codes that emerged from the data during analysis.Results:1090 intraoperative interactions were identified within 376 minutes of dialogue. Most interactions were didactic, instructing the resident how to use an instrument to perform a task. Deductive analysis of postoperative video playback review identified 146 interactions within 155 minutes. While the most common interaction type remained didactic, a teaching component was included more often. It became apparent that deductive analysis using the intraoperative codes did not adequately capture the nature and focus of feedback during video playback. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis identified more dialogic video playback sessions with more resident-initiated questions and reflection.Conclusions:This study demonstrates that the nature of feedback during video playback is fundamentally different from that in the OR, offering a greater potential for collaborative and improved learning.

Local tissue interactions govern pLL patterning in medaka

Vertebrate organs are arranged in a stereotypic, species-specific position along the animal body plan. Substantial morphological variation exists between related species, especially so in the vastly diversified teleost clade. It is still unclear how tissues, organs and systems can accommodate such diverse scaffolds. Here, we use the distinctive arrangement of neuromasts in the posterior lateral line (pLL) system of medaka fish to address the tissue-interactions defining a pattern. We show that patterning in this peripheral nervous system is established by autonomous organ precursors independent of neuronal wiring. In addition, we target the keratin 15 gene to generate stuck-in-the-midline (siml) mutants, which display epithelial lesions and a disrupted pLL patterning. By using siml/wt chimeras, we determine that the aberrant siml pLL pattern depends on the mutant epithelium, since a wild type epithelium can rescue the siml phenotype. Inducing epithelial lesions by 2-photon laser ablation during pLL morphogenesis phenocopies siml genetic mutants and reveals that epithelial integrity defines the final position of the embryonic pLL neuromasts. Our results using the medaka pLL disentangle intrinsic from extrinsic properties during the establishment of a sensory system. We speculate that intrinsic programs guarantee proper organ morphogenesis, while instructive interactions from surrounding tissues facilitates the accommodation of sensory organs to the diverse body plans found among teleosts.

A Framework of Implementing Strategies for Active Student Engagement in Remote/Online Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic shift of face-to-face teaching and learning to remote/online teaching and learning at all levels of education worldwide. Active student engagement is always a challenging task for educators regardless of the teaching modalities. The degree of challenge for active student engagement increases significantly in remote/online teaching and learning. This paper presents a framework that implements activities/strategies to ensure active student engagement in remote/online teaching and learning during this COVID-19 pandemic. The structure of the developed framework combines the balanced use of adjusted teaching pedagogy, educational technologies, and an e-learning management system. Teaching pedagogy involves various active learning techniques, synchronous teaching, asynchronous teaching, and segmentation. The educational technologies, such as Google Meet, Jamboard, Google Chat, Breakout room, Mentimeter, Moodle, electronic writing devices, etc., enable the developed framework for active student engagement. An e-learning management system, Moodle, is used for course management purposes. Over the last three semesters (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021), the framework is tested for three different engineering courses. A questionnaire draws out student perception on the developed framework in terms of active student engagement that ensures student–student interactions, student–instructor interactions, social presence, reinforces learning and deepens understanding of the materials in remote teaching. The feedback also indicates that combining the utilized technologies, synchronous teaching, and active learning activities in the developed framework is effective for interactive learning; hence a practical approach for active student engagement in remote/online teaching and learning. The article focuses on contributing to present research and infusing future research direction about technology-enhanced active student engagement in Engineering Education.

Effects of Teaching in a Summer STEM Camp on the Mathematics Teaching Self-efficacy of Highly Qualified Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers

Educational opportunity gaps experienced by students of color living in poverty, with accompanying lower levels of mathematics achievement, remain a roadblock to their access to college-level training in STEM fields. To address this problem, secondary teachers must be confident in their ability to share mathematics content effectively with students from cultures different than their own. Bridging the opportunity gap is more likely with two elements in place: intellectually stimulating pre-college experiences and community partnerships that establish connections between underserved neighborhoods and resource-filled environments such as university campuses.
 This study explored the effects of teaching in a four-week STEM summer camp for ethnically diverse, high-needs middle school girls on the teaching self-efficacy of highly-qualified preservice secondary mathematics teachers, a group that has been less studied than preservice elementary teachers. Participants were scholarship students in a federally-funded teacher preparation scholarship program at an urban, metropolitan university. Teaching self-efficacy was measured by the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) and by follow-up qualitative analysis of questionnaire responses and focus groups. Participants’ gains on the MTEBI were significant for Personal Mathematics Teaching Efficacy, but not for Mathematics Teaching Outcome Expectancy. Qualitative analyses suggested that both instructional coaching and everyday interactions in a summer camp setting contributed strongly to the preservice teachers’ increased confidence about teaching mathematics to culturally diverse, high-needs learners.

Factors Affecting Student Satisfaction in Distance Learning: A Case Study of COMSATS (VIRTUAL CAMPUS)

Generally, In Pakistan people perceived that quality of distance learning education is poor. Therefore, we decided to carry out the study to see if it’s only people opinion or legend. The aim of the study is to analyze the association between instructor performance (IP), student instructor interaction (SII), course evaluation (CE) and student satisfaction (SS) variables in distance education by taking Virtual COMSATS as a Case study. Target population of this research was the COMSATS (VIRTUAL CAMPUS). students out of which 251 graduate and undergraduate students were selected as sample for current research. The purpose of this research study was to understand the key factors affecting student satisfaction in distance learning .Researchers also collect information through primary data using survey questionnaire that distributed through email to all the students of VCOMSAT. From literature review it was found that in distance learning education student satisfaction is based on instructor performance, student-instructor interaction, course evaluation, Learning management system use, instructor attitude etc. From literature review we found that course evaluation and instructor performance is very important for student satisfaction in distance learning. Researchers need to compare student’s satisfactions with subject wise. Comparison of practical subjects and without practical subjects needs to identify with student satisfaction. There is also required to compare lecturer motivation with student satisfaction and performance. Future research is also need to compare satisfaction of rural area and urban areas students in distance learning education and also need to compare with traditional education.

Teacher candidates’ satisfaction with massive open online courses in Turkey

Adult education, especially teacher education, is one of the most important issues in Turkey in order to increase the quality of education and to keep up with the countries which aim to become one of the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world. Therefore, most of the universities started to improve their distance learning provisions by using massive open online courses (MOOCs). The purpose of this study is to understand teacher candidates’ opinions on MOOCs and their satisfaction with MOOCs. A mixed method including qualitative and quantitative approaches was used in this study. Results show that the MOOCs have a positive effect on teacher candidates’ personal development and learning life; therefore, they are satisfied with the MOOCs. Only the satisfaction level in learner–instructor interaction is lower in asynchronous courses. As adult learners, they wanted to be more active in MOOCs. These findings improve the understanding of MOOC’s learning satisfaction and contribute to design and develop better MOOCs according to learners’ needs and demands. Keywords: adult education, teacher education, distance education

Teachers’ Instructional Interaction in an Inclusive Classroom: Interaction Between General Teacher and Special Assistant Teacher

The purpose of this study was to determine the categories of instructional interaction, the basic patterns of instructional interactions, and the functions of the basic model of instructional interaction that occurs between the English teacher (ET) and the special assistant teacher (SAT) to help the slow learner student (SLS), in terms of instructional interaction that occurs between two teachers in an English lesson. The researchers used single-case study method research. Data were collected through observation, as well as through semi-structured interviews with the two teachers. Findings from this study indicate that the category of instructional interaction that occurs between the two consists of academic and non-academic interactions. The instructional interaction basic patterns that are formed between ET and SAT in academic interaction are initiate-response-follow-up (IRF) and initiate-response (IR). The function of the basic pattern of academic interactions is to inform delegation of academic tasks from ET to SAT and to help SLS perform academic assignments. The instructional interaction basic pattern of non-academic interaction is initiate-response (IR). The function of the basic pattern of non-academic interactions is to enhance the provision of non-academic assistance from SAT to SLS, such as motivating, and focusing on learning. If instructional interactions between ET and SAT have not been carried out optimally, then the collaboration has not been well planned.

Measuring Explicit Instruction Using Classroom Observations of Student-Teacher Interactions (COSTI).

This article describes the development and technical adequacy of the Classroom Observations of Student Teacher Interactions (COSTI) instrument, a tool for measuring the frequency and rate of explicit instructional interactions, such as those used in Direct Instruction curricula, for teaching children basic reading and math skills. COSTI was originally developed to provide teachers with coaching feedback to improve their explicit reading instructional practices, and has been shown in multiple studies to be a reliable and valid predictor of student gains in beginning reading and math skills. This article discusses potential uses of the instrument for training and coaching across curricula with varying instructional design features, and lays out a future research agenda to further improve COSTI and related observation tools for studying explicit instructional practices and their contribution to student learning.

Preschool teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and interaction quality in the domain of instructional support – do professional vision competencies moderate this relation?

ABSTRACT The quality of instructional supportive interactions between preschool teachers and children positively relates to learning and developmental outcomes of children in institutions of early childhood education and care. The main focus of preschool teacher research, therefore, is on the impact of preschool teacher competencies in interaction quality. Previous research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs influence interaction quality. The present study examined this relation in a structural equation model that evaluated whether professional vision (conceptualized as noticing and reasoning) of relevant interactional situations moderates the effect of self-efficacy beliefs on interaction quality in the domain of Instructional Support and whether preschool teachers’ professional knowledge exerts influence on the model. Drawing on a sample of 120 German preschool teachers, analyses showed a moderating effect in the reasoning component of professional vision. Results offer new possibilities for the promotion of high-quality instructional interactions in German preschools.

Coaching Teachers to Improve Students' School Readiness Skills: Indirect Effects of Teacher-Student Interaction.

This study examined indirect associations of MyTeachingPartner coaching with pre-K students' (N = 1,570; 73% low income) school readiness, via improvements of teachers' (N = 393; 47% Black; 41% Head Start) classroom interactions. Data were collected across 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 in 10 urban sites across the eastern United States. The number of completed coaching cycles was examined as a predictor of teacher-student interactions, as were direct or indirect associations with students' literacy, receptive language, and working memory skills. Significant findings indicated that teachers engaged in more feedback cycles showed greater improvements in instructional interactions, in turn predicting greater increases in students' early literacy and working memory. Results confirm the theory of change for coaching and an ecological-developmental conceptualization of school readiness.

A study of future physics teachers’ knowledge for teaching: A case of a decibel sound level scale

This study examines the knowledge for teaching of prospective secondary physics teachers as related to the subject of sound waves, specifically the topics of sound level and sound intensity. The data is comprised from future teachers’ responses to the task in which they had to compose a script for an imaginary dialogue between a teacher and a group of students and provide a commentary elaborating on their instructional choices. The topics selected for the task were chosen intentionally as they provide authentic and rich opportunities to bridge mathematics and science concepts while challenging future teachers to consider logarithmic measurement scale and its role in science. The task provided the beginning of the dialogue, that featured a student’s confusion related to the measurement of the sound level using a decibel scale. Future physics teachers were asked to extend this dialogue through describing envisioned instructional interactions that could have ensued. The instructional interchange related to the relationship between sound intensity and sound level, and particular teachers’ responses to the student ideas related to the meaning of a decibel sound level scale were categorized as featuring superficial or deep, conceptual or procedural knowledge for teaching. We describe each category using illustrative excerpts from the participants’ scripts. We conclude with highlighting the affordances of scriptwriting for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.

Embracing failure in a first-year technology course

Although students might expect a technology literacy course to provide them with tool-driven educational experiences, first year students in a teachers college at a large public university in the United States discovered, instead, a course that would move them beyond technology use to reflective development and understanding. The course designers used Dewey’s natural impulses for learning to create a course with a range of innovative assignments and pedagogical approaches. The resulting experience immersed future educators in exploration, scaffolded learning, provided multiple opportunities, and allowed for intellectual and personal growth. In this paper, we will describe the conceptual structure of the course, provide examples of assignments and activities, and describe the use of technology both for pedagogy and instructor interaction and design. We will include samples of students’ work and a description of their experiences based on their reflections.

Bandit algorithms to personalize educational chatbots

To emulate the interactivity of in-person math instruction, we developed MathBot, a rule-based chatbot that explains math concepts, provides practice questions, and offers tailored feedback. We evaluated MathBot through three Amazon Mechanical Turk studies in which participants learned about arithmetic sequences. In the first study, we found that more than 40% of our participants indicated a preference for learning with MathBot over videos and written tutorials from Khan Academy. The second study measured learning gains, and found that MathBot produced comparable gains to Khan Academy videos and tutorials. We solicited feedback from users in those two studies to emulate a real-world development cycle, with some users finding the lesson too slow and others finding it too fast. We addressed these concerns in the third and main study by integrating a contextual bandit algorithm into MathBot to personalize the pace of the conversation, allowing the bandit to either insert extra practice problems or skip explanations. We randomized participants between two conditions in which actions were chosen uniformly at random (i.e., a randomized A/B experiment) or by the contextual bandit. We found that the bandit learned a similarly effective pedagogical policy to that learned by the randomized A/B experiment while incurring a lower cost of experimentation. Our findings suggest that personalized conversational agents are promising tools to complement existing online resources for math education, and that data-driven approaches such as contextual bandits are valuable tools for learning effective personalization.

Negotiating figurative language from literary texts: second-language instruction as a dual literacy practice

The aim of this article is to contribute knowledge about how figurative language from literary texts is negotiated through oral interaction in second-language instruction. The material consists of transcriptions of recordings from a classroom study of basic adult second-language instruction involving two teachers and their two student groups. Theories of semantic waves and discursive mobility are used to explore and visualize discursive shifts between concrete and condensed abstract meanings. The results show a varied use of linguistic resources, where students’ contributions often serve as a bridge between the teachers’ concrete examples and abstract paraphrases in which lexical metaphors interplayed with grammatical metaphors. In some exchanges, characters and events in the literary texts were significantly expanded upon in the interaction as they were used as contextual resources. The study sheds light on second-language instruction as a dual disciplinary literacy practice, involving both language learning and the study of literary texts.

Investigating control and scientific performance of educators in universities

Academic practice showed that the control work in an advanced instructive foundation gains an articulated scientific direction, which permits us to discuss a solitary control and insightful action of instructors. The point of this exploration is to consider the control and logical movement of educators as the intentional, educated cycle regarding acquiring data, contemplating the status and improvement patterns, recognizing the need to change the course of the instructive interaction, to guarantee the outcome - the nature of understudies' schooling. The work depends on perception, investigation of the control and scientific movement of educators, speculation, systematization, amalgamation, educational test, master appraisal technique, quantitative and subjective examination of exploration results, and testing. The adequacy of the control and insightful movement of educators is guaranteed by the execution of the fundamental elements of the instructive cycle throughout control and scientific action dependent on refreshing the abstract situation of a person. Also, the usage of focused preparing of educators for the excellent execution of control and logical exercises.

Development of international commercial project management

The article talks about the issues identified with data logical help of the administration/technique improvement for global instruction business projects inside preparing program advancement. The article portrays in detail the improvement of MAI-chains of command produced for this level. Computations of multi-master appraisals during the execution of the global instructive business project "New training” and break down the fundamental issues related with the settled-on decision made were given. A short outline of extra models of the instructive interaction advancement/defense is accommodated this level. Thought of the VS-connection between the MAI chains of importance of advantages and expenses permits us to reason that the most favored type of preparing association for some HR association is TF groups, albeit the other two structures are additionally very alluring.

Reimagining online grading, assessment, and testing using situated cognition

ABSTRACT Increased online learning is helping many appreciate that online grading, formative assessment, and summative testing can cause instructor burnout and leave little time for more productive instructor interactions. We reimagined grading, assessment, and testing in an extended program of design-based research using situative theory to refine online courses in secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and technical contexts. This research minimized private instructor-student interactions (including grading and private formative feedback) while maximizing public interactions. We present 10 assessment design principles, including a new principle concerning diversity and equity. We assume that these principles will be new to many readers and counter-intuitive to some. These principles focus on assessment functions (rather than ostensible purposes) and align learning across increasingly formal levels. We argue that doing so can maximize formative and transformative assessment functions, position students as authors, rather than consumers, reposition minoritized students to empower them, and increase validity and credibility of evidence.