Natural Learning Environment Research Articles

Emotional Overshadowing: Pleasant and Unpleasant Cues Overshadow Neutral Cues in Human Associative Learning.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-024-00270-0.

Escape room jako metoda aktywizująca w nauczaniu języka niemieckiego na uczelni wyższej

The idea of using an escape room in foreign language teaching fits perfectly with the needs of today’s learners, where we create a natural learning environment using digital tools. In the winter semester 2022/2023, a project entitled ‘My linguistic Escape Room (ER)’ was carried out among 60 third-year undergraduate students of German Studies at the University of Warsaw Institute of German Studies as part of the subject ‘Contemporary trends in language learning’. This project comprised three phases and was preceded by theoretical and practical lectures on the specifics of ER, as well as a review of analogue and digital games. The initial part of the project consisted of the lecturer initiating the project, discussing topic proposals in a forum, dividing into teams and developing a preliminary project plan. The core part involved independent work in teams and the final part involved the presentation of ER scenarios to the forum and their evaluation. Each of these parts was carried out exclusively in German. The following article presents the results of the project. The tool used to collect the research material was a questionnaire. The aim of the study was to identify the opinions of 3rd year undergraduate German studies students on the use of escape rooms in higher education. The main part of the survey concerns the advantages and difficulties experienced during each of the three phases. In the final section of the survey, students declare a desire for further escape room games at university and also during their further academic career. This fact reinforces the belief that escape rooms are an interesting and engaging activation technique at university, which should become a permanent part of the teaching repertoire.

Bridging Priorities Between Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions for Autism and Educational Practice in Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Practice guidelines for early childhood education (ECE) and clinical autism interventions (Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention, NDBI) have emerged separately in history, represent different disciplines, and operate within different service systems in the United States. This article identifies priorities, principles, and practices that are shared across the NDBI and ECE frameworks, unique to each framework but compatible with the other, or in conflict. Both frameworks support converging inclusive ECE models focused on autism in that they are both grounded in responsive relationships, natural learning environments, and strategies to promote children’s motivation and active engagement. While compatible in general, each framework extends the other in important ways. For example, NDBI goes beyond the ECE frameworks by focusing on a more fine-grained examination of learning strategies and targets. Opportunities for bridging gaps are identified, including the use of implementation science frameworks to integrate perspectives from different stakeholder groups, supporting the scale-up of inclusion preschools in community settings.

Triggering Interest in Learning through Environmentally Based Space Management

Interest in learning is still a classic problem teachers face in the learning process. The learning environment is one of the school resources that has the potential to arouse students' interest in learning. This research aims to explore and investigate how the design of the physical environment of classrooms or study rooms at the Alam Nurul Islamic School (SANI) Jember can influence students' interests. The research focus was analyzed using the theories of Tomkins, Renninger, Hidi, and several other relevant theories. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method, where data collection is carried out through observation, interviews, documentation, and photography. Data analysis uses the theories of Milles, Huberman, and Saldana with three steps, namely data condensation, data presentation, and verification. The SANI learning environment is managed with the nature-based school concept by utilizing and optimizing the characteristics of the school environment, such as context, content, and learning processes. In this research, strategies, and interventions in the planning and substance of natural environment-based space management by creating a natural learning environment infrastructure can increase students' motivation, attention, and learning experience and potentially increase student interest and engagement.

Escape room na lekcji języka obcego

The idea of implementing an escape room as part of foreign language teaching fits perfectly with the needs of today's learner, where we create a natural learning environment using digital tools. The escape room, whether stationary or virtual, gives space for the use of different types of language tasks. The article first describes the escape room in the light of theoretical considerations. It then presents the results of a survey, conducted among 31 teachers of various foreign languages. The aim of the survey was to gather feedback from the teachers who themselves use escape rooms in their language classes.

Intensive parenting and elective bilingualism English/Spanish in Spanish monolingual families: From language ideologies to practice

In our globalised economy, English proficiency is currently a priority for Spanish families, as it is fundamental for ensuring their children’s future economic and personal welfare. As a sign of good parenting, families are increasingly acting as linguistic entrepreneurs and adopting family language policies oriented to provide their children with the best methodologies to enhance English learning, thereby investing their personal and financial capital in extracurricular classes, local English camps, and stays abroad. In searching for more natural learning environments, those parents with knowledge of English emulate native bi/multilingual families and raise their children in English and Spanish. This type of non-native elective bilingualism upbringing is gaining momentum in Spain and deserves further scrutiny. Therefore, this paper is devoted to better understand this phenomenon by means of the study of 16 Spanish families who are raising their children in English and Spanish. Their family language policy (FLP) will be analysed in terms of language beliefs, language management and language practices. Results reflect parents’ desires and imagined identities with English as a metaphor of accomplishment, as well as their emotional implications, disruptions and negotiations to bring to fruition this complex socialization practice.

Effect of outdoor games among school children in Northern Gujarat, India.

Outdoor play works as an important tool for the children education. Providing a natural learning environment for children helps them to have an active and fulfilling life. Also, higher levels of attention and well-being are promoted when children play in green outdoor spaces. The importance of play for children's healthy development is grounded in a strong body of research. The study used an experimental research methodology, and data was obtained from 60 school-aged children using a purposive sample strategy and a checklist. The mean, standard deviation, and chi square test were used to analyze the data. After giving act out method, majority (85%) of the school age children had adequate knowledge, 15% of the school children had moderate knowledge regarding outdoor games and its importance. In data analysis the mean of pretest score was 6.43 and mean of post test score was 15.88. The mean difference was 9.45. Post test mean was more than pretest mean, which indicate the effectiveness of actout method on deficiency of outdoor game among school children. The standard deviation of pretest knowledge score was 3.9; the post test knowledge score was 2.47. The computed 't' value was 16.1, the DF was 59, and the P value was 1.67, all of which are significant. Religion, monthly income, and the age of the children all had an impact on the calculated chi square value. According to the findings of this study, the act out method was successful in boosting understanding about the lack of outdoor games among school-aged children.

Naturalistic speech supports distributional learning across contexts

At birth, infants discriminate most of the sounds of the world's languages, but by age 1, infants become language-specific listeners. This has generally been taken as evidence that infants have learned which acoustic dimensions are contrastive, or useful for distinguishing among the sounds of their language(s), and have begun focusing primarily on those dimensions when perceiving speech. However, speech is highly variable, with different sounds overlapping substantially in their acoustics, and after decades of research, we still do not know what aspects of the speech signal allow infants to differentiate contrastive from noncontrastive dimensions. Here we show that infants could learn which acoustic dimensions of their language are contrastive, despite the high acoustic variability. Our account is based on the cross-linguistic fact that even sounds that overlap in their acoustics differ in the contexts they occur in. We predict that this should leave a signal that infants can pick up on and show that acoustic distributions indeed vary more by context along contrastive dimensions compared with noncontrastive dimensions. By establishing this difference, we provide a potential answer to how infants learn about sound contrasts, a question whose answer in natural learning environments has remained elusive.

Parents with intellectual disability and mental health conditions: Early intervention providers’ perceptions

ABSTRACT Background It is highly recommended that professionals promote caregivers' capacity-building to use intervention strategies to support children with developmental delays or disabilities in natural learning environments, particularly in the earliest years of life. There is a gap, however, in understanding the extent to which these professionals may feel supported in tailoring outreach to support parents with Intellectual Disability and/or mental health conditions (MHCs). Methods We surveyed providers (n = 55) who work with families of infants and toddlers in Early Intervention programs across the United States. Results Most had at least one family with intellectual disability (87%) or a MHC (92%). At least half felt parents with intellectual disability or MHCs warranted more time/resources (64% or 50%, respectively) and half were “extremely interested” in trainings to support parents with intellectual disability (48%) or MHCs (56%). Conclusions Findings and implications are discussed.

Research evidence: Four lessons from the pandemic about learning in natural environments

Children and Young People NowVol. 2022, No. 4 Special Report ResearchResearch evidence: Four lessons from the pandemic about learning in natural environmentsAnne HuntAnne HuntChief executive, Council for Learning Outside the ClassroomSearch for more papers by this authorAnne HuntPublished Online:6 Sep 2022https://doi.org/10.12968/cypn.2022.4.30AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2 April 2022Volume 2022Issue 4ISSN (print): 1755-8093ISSN (online): 2515-7582 Metrics History Published online 6 September 2022 Published in print 2 April 2022 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

Augmented Reality Needs Analysis in Science Learning: Teacher's Perspective

The use of Augmented Reality can increase the activities of students to blend into a natural learning environment no longer abstract. It was merging virtual objects and fundamental interactions anytime and anywhere, which can present 3D objects, which are the most important features of Augmented Reality, resulting in a learning experience different from before. The main purpose of this study is to focus on teachers' views related to material needs and the supporting factors in the acceptance of Augmented Reality, especially in science learning in elementary schools. This study took a sample of teachers in 20 public elementary schools in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, with a total population of 200 teachers with a sample of 30 teachers. The sample includes teachers who have years of teaching experience with different schools. The result is that STEM and Augmented Reality have not been maximally applied in schools; There needs to be broader socialization and training to the need for various Augmented Reality-based science materials that need to be developed.

Turkish pre-service early childhood education teachers’ perceptions and practices of nature-based teaching on professional experience

AbstractThis paper considers the perceptions and teaching practices of Turkish pre-service early childhood education teachers with regard to nature-based teaching. Nature-based activities rarely take place in Turkish early childhood education settings; accordingly, there is a clear need to develop pre-service teachers’ professional experience related to nature-based teaching to empower them to support children’s learning in natural environments. In this study, eight pre-service teachers applied nature-based teaching in a professional experience placement over a period of 10 weeks. Clarke and Peterson’s (1986) model of teachers’ thoughts and actions guided this study in terms of understanding pre-service teachers’ related perceptions and practices. Qualitative data were collected through activity plans and semi-structured interviews, the findings from which revealed that the implementation of various activities using natural materials and the natural environment increased pre-service teachers’ self-confidence related to nature-based teaching. The primary barriers to the implementation of nature-based teaching activities were reported as being the attitudes of families and school management, weather conditions and pre-service teachers’ lack of knowledge of nature-based pedagogies. These barriers could be addressed by supporting pre-service early childhood teachers’ professional development and by affording them more opportunities to perform nature-related activities in early childhood settings.

Training, Supervising, and Supporting Students With Emotional–Behavioral Disorders as Cross-Age Tutors

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are frequently on the receiving end of intervention models (e.g., social skills training) in which targeted skills are modeled and practiced in unnatural arrangements (i.e., teacher-led). Special educators consistently report a need for effective interventions and instructional arrangements that promote social-behavioral skills of students with EBD in natural learning environments (i.e., with peers). When students with EBD are provided the opportunity to serve in the role of tutor (i.e., on the instructional delivery end of the model), increases in academic and behavioral skills have been found for both tutors and tutees. This article provides an overview of effective procedures and considerations for training, supervising, and supporting students with EBD as cross-age tutors.

Movement Patterns in Students Diagnosed with ADHD, Objective Measurement in a Natural Learning Environment.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is the most common neuropsychological disorder in childhood and adolescence, affecting the basic psychological processes involved in learning, social adaptation and affective adjustment. From previous research, the disorder is linked to problems in different areas of development, with deficiencies in psychological processes leading to the development of the most common characteristics of the disorder such as inattention, excess of activity and lack of inhibitory control. As for the diagnosis, in spite of being a very frequent disorder, there are multiple controversies about which tools are the most suitable for evaluation. One of the most widespread tools in the professional field is behavior inventories such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for Parents and Teachers or the ADHD Rating Scale-V. The main disadvantage of these assessment tools is that they do not provide an objective observation. For this reason, there are different studies focused on recording objective measures of the subjects’ movement, since hyperkinesia is one of the most characteristic symptoms of this disorder. In this sense, we have developed an application that, using a Kinect device, is capable of measuring the movement of the different parts of the body of up to six subjects in the classroom, being a natural context for the student. The main objective of this work is twofold, on the one hand, to investigate whether there are correlations between excessive movement and high scores in the inventories for the diagnosis of ADHD, Rating Scale-V and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and, on the other hand, to determine which sections of the body present the most significant mobility in subjects diagnosed with ADHD. Results show that the control group, composed of neurotypical subjects, presents less kinaesthetic activity than the clinical group diagnosed with ADHD. This indicates that the experimental group presents one of the main characteristics of the disorder. In addition, results also show that practically all the measured body parts present significant differences, being higher in the clinical group, highlighting the head as the joint with the highest effect size.

PENGEMBANGAN KETERAMPILAN BERPIKIR KRITIS MELALUI STORYTELLING BAGI CALON GURU BAHASA INGGRIS DI FKIP UNCEN

This community service activity aims to introduce innovative English teaching methods Storytelling in English learning to prospective English teacher students in the FKIP UNCEN English Language Study Program to be better prepared and trained in developing English learning that is able to integrate the three aspects of educational taxonomy, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. In learning using Storytelling conditions, storytellers have to be more creative using the language focus in telling stories they read to students and at the same time asking questions that are able to stimulate students to think critically using the target language correctly in order to create the meaningful interaction and natural learning environment between both the storytellers and their listeners. The specific purpose of this activity is to introduce the use of Storytelling in teaching and learning English classroom in the context of the foreign language teaching and learning, and how it is managed to build a learning atmosphere to support the development of target language skills as well as learners’ critical thinking skills through classroom interaction in the form of dialogue and questions given by speakers. This community service activity involved students of the VII semester English language study program who take the Curriculum and Material Development course, conduct for about six month including the selection and deepening of the story that will be used for storytelling, a list of questions that have the potential to stimulate critical thinking skills, enrichment story material, implementation of community service activities, and seminars as a result of community service activities. This activity is useful for the readiness of prospective English teacher students in the English Education Study Program FKIP UNCEN in applying their knowledge and knowledge after completing their studies. Keywords: Critical Thinking Skills; Storytelling; Prospective English Teacher

Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environment to Develop Creative-Ecoliteracy in Elementary School Students

Creativity and Sustainability Education (Education for Sustainability Development) are two global agendas in 21st century learning. This underlies the birth of various pedagogical ideas that are relevant for teaching creativity and eco-literacy. Humans are creatures who love to play (homo ludens) and will always desire to be affiliated with nature (biophilia). Therefore, this article aims to describe how creative play and learning in the natural environment are used to develop creative-eco-literacy in elementary school students. This article presents an overview of Participatory Action Research (PAR) studies in social studies teaching. Kemmis, McTaggart, and Nixon (2014) defined PAR as a study, which creates learning innovation through planning, action, observation, and reflection. The teacher makes learning plans by preparing various creative games performed in the natural environment such as playing on grass, identifying colors, shapes, textures of plants and animal, natural sounds, describing, asking, telling about animals, running, digging, and solving environmental problems such as through gardening activities. The teacher does not forget to make the relevance of these activities with the curriculum that applies in the school thematically. Learning activities are then observed and reflected by the teacher to see their effectiveness and impact on students creative-eco-literacy development. The results showed that creative play activities and learning in the natural environment can be used to develop adaptive, aesthetic, cognitive, communication as a language function, sensorimotor, and socio emotional attitudes in students.

A Systematic Review Protocol to Identify the Key Benefits and Efficacy of Nature-Based Learning in Outdoor Educational Settings.

Outdoor Learning in natural environments is a burgeoning approach in the educational sector. However, the evidence-base of research has not kept pace with teacher perceptions and increased practitioner usage. Anecdotal evidence and formal research suggest the significant health and wellbeing benefits of nature connection. Offering low-cost, non-invasive pedagogical solutions to public health challenges—particularly around mental health, wellbeing, physical literacy, and increasing physical activity–the pedagogical benefits of Outdoor Learning are yet to be fully enunciated. The proposed systematic review will search for studies across eight academic databases which measure the academic and socio-emotional benefits of Outdoor Learning, with a focus on school-aged educational settings. Using the inclusion criteria set out in this paper (and registered with PROSPERO: CRD42020153171), relevant studies will be identified then summarised to provide a synthesis of the current literature on Outdoor Learning. The goal of this review is to document the widespread international investigation into Outdoor Learning and its associated benefits for development, wellbeing, and personal growth. The systematic review will provide insights for teacher-training institutions, educational policy makers, and frontline teachers to improve the learning experiences of future students.

Practicing Dogme ELT Techniques to Improve Academic Essay Writing: An Evaluative Study of Learners’ Perception

Among the teaching approaches and methods that are currently used worldwide, Dogme ELT is a modern one that claims to show better results because of creating a natural learning environment. This action research was performed in order to examine the intermediate level learners’ feedback about Dogme ELT to improve essay writing skills. The data was collected after teaching through Dogme techniques and analyzed by applying mixed methods. The learners’ responses to motivational aspects of learning, their participation and performance in the class and the impacts of Dogme Pedagogy, recorded after Dogme ELT treatment, demonstrated that Dogme ELT techniques proved themselves very effective and successful in improving essay-writing skills. Many of the participants of this class wished to have been taught through such teaching-learning techniques from the very beginning. All these responses showed better learning outcomes by using Dogme Pedagogy to improve academic essay writing skills of intermediate level learners.

How Enaction and Ecological Approaches Can Contribute to Sports and Skill Learning.

The purpose of this paper is to explain learning in sports and physical education (PE) from the perspective of enactive and ecological psychology. The learning process is first presented from the enactive perspective, and some relevant notions such as sense-making and sensorimotor schemes are developed. Then, natural learning environments are described, and their importance in the human development process is explained. This is followed by a section devoted to the learner’s experience in which some research methods are explained, such as neurophenomenology, in addition to self-confrontation, interviews aimed at bringing out the meaning, sensations, and emotions that performers experience when they are immersed in their sport or a PE class. The sections on the ecological approach deal with the attunement, calibration, the education of intention, and the importance of representative experimental designs. The last section addresses the main similarities and differences between the two approaches. Finally, we state our theoretical position in favor of a common project that brings together the main elements of both post-cognitive approaches.

Comparing cross-situational word learning, retention, and generalisation in children with autism and typical development

Word learning is complicated by referential ambiguity – there are often multiple potential targets for a newly-heard word. While typically developing (TD) children can accurately infer word meanings from cross-situational statistics, specific difficulties tracking word-object co-occurrences may contribute to language impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we investigate cross-situational word learning as an integrated system including mapping, retention, and generalisation in both typical development and autism. In Study 1, children with ASD were as accurate at disambiguating the meanings of novel words from statistical correspondences as TD controls matched on receptive vocabulary. In Study 2, both populations spontaneously utilised social and non-social attentional cues to facilitate and accelerate their mapping of word-referent relationships. Across Studies 1 and 2, both groups retrieved and generalised word-referent representations with impressive and comparable accuracy. Although children with ASD performed very similarly to TD children on measures of learning accuracy, they were significantly slower to identify correct referents under both cued and non-cued learning conditions. These findings indicate that mechanisms supporting cross-situational word learning, and the relationships between them, are not qualitatively atypical in language-delayed children with ASD. However, the increased time required to generate correct responses suggests that these mechanisms may be less efficient, potentially impacting learning in natural environments where visual and auditory stimuli are presented rapidly. Our data support claims that word learning in the longer term is driven by the gradual accumulation of word-object associations over multiple learning instances and could potentially inform the development of interventions designed to scaffold word learning.