Real Learning Contexts Research Articles

Enhancing collaborative online learning in higher education: using Google Docs to analyze Literature texts by teacher trainees

The purpose of this project was to explore how collaborative learning can be enhanced through Information Communications Technology in the critical reading and analysis of Literature texts in a particular teacher training course at a selected university in Uganda. The study undertook an interventional research approach whereby critical literacy principles provided the basis for formulating online tasks that would provoke higher order thinking skills such synthesizing, analyzing, reasoning, comprehending, application, and evaluation during the discussion of the play The Lion and the Jewel. A conversational framework was adopted to design a collaborative learning environment by which face-to-face sessions were combined with technology in form of Google Docs. Some of the steps of engagement included identifying the eight participants, sharing of initial content on critical literacy with them, face-to-face sessions and uploading of tasks. The findings reveal that with systematic instructions and guidance Google Docs can provide a collaborative learning platform whereby students can continuously comment about Literature texts in a conversational manner; the intervention proved the possibilities of flexibility in the learning environment; and dialogic teaching especially when discussing Literature texts was greatly enhanced during this intervention. This study was carried out in a real time learning context during the teaching of one of the researcher’s courses. The finding thus can offer some useful guiding steps as benchmarks for actual take up of other ICT tools in teaching and learning in higher institutions of education

The Effects of Grades on the Motivation and Academic Performance of Moroccan High School Students

The use of grades in assessing student performance in education is a well- established practise across the globe. The grading system plays a pivotal role in today’s education paradigm and is still identified as the potent mode of learner’s performance assessment. Indeed, this a priori creates a bubble within the education system that restricts innovation and divergent thinking while affecting students’ social and psychological dimensions. The grading system dislocates students from their real learning context, alienating the learning outcomes while pushing learners to live in an illusion of excellence. This study attempted to unravel the impact of grades on Moroccan high school students' performance and attitudes through the employment of a mixed-methods research design. The findings showed that grades have an undesirable impact on students' motivation and sustained performance while creating anarchy in their psychological and social well-being.

Teaching EFL With Immersive Virtual Reality Technologies: A Comparison With the Conventional Listening Method

This paper investigates the impact of different immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) technological approaches in teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Specifically, this paper explores the passive iVR and interactive iVR in a real authentic learning context as didactic possibilities compared to the conventional method of listening, consisting of audio-only listening exercises. The study was conducted using university students of B1 level EFL classes. The dependent variables considered in the study were Knowledge Retention, Presence, User Satisfaction, Cybersickness, and Preferred Technology. Results indicated that users showed significant satisfaction and preference for using this technology for learning, revealing enjoyment and motivation which are vital factors when learning a foreign language. However, no significant differences were found between learning via traditional listening exercises or the virtual system. Correlation tests were conducted between the questionnaire subscales to understand better which elements can influence learning. The study concludes that using iVR-based learning tools to learn a foreign language as an alternative to audio listening can only produce a broader positive impact and greater motivation. The results also suggest that iVR can be a valuable tool in the education field for knowledge transfer and motivation when learning foreign languages.

The Creative Process and Emotions of Pupils in a Training Context with a Design Project.

For many years, researchers have been investigating how the creative process occurs and what factors influence it. The scope of these studies is essential in the school context to enable pupils to develop their creativity and thus address the needs of the 21st century society. Although very rich, these studies are generally not situated in a real teaching and learning context. The output of the present research will make it possible to model, to better understand, and to identify the creative process in pupils as they design and produce utility objects in an educational and training context with ecological validity (real context of training). In the context of teaching Creative and Manual Activities in education, in the French part of Switzerland, we are focusing on observations of the creative process in line with psychology, didactics, and pedagogy. During their class, 22 pupils were invited to create a water fountain and, in parallel, to complete a Creative process Report Diary about the stages they do and the multivariate factors (cognitive, conative, emotional, and environmental factors) they mobilize at each lesson. Results presented the main frequent stages and factors at each lesson and we proposed a model describing the transitions between the stages and how the multivariate factors are involved in each stage. They illustrate what pupils actually do in a creative learning context.

Framework for Classroom Student Grading with Open-Ended Questions: A Text-Mining Approach

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework based on text-mining techniques to support teachers in their tasks of grading texts, compositions, or essays, which form the answers to open-ended questions (OEQ). The approach assumes that OEQ must be used as a learning and evaluation instrument with increasing frequency. Given the time-consuming grading process for those questions, their large-scale use is only possible when computational tools can help the teacher. This work assumes that the grading decision is entirely a teacher’s task responsibility, not the result of an automatic grading process. In this context, the teacher is the author of questions to be included in the tests, administration and results assessment, the entire cycle for this process being noticeably short: a few days at most. An attempt is made to address this problem. The method is entirely exploratory, descriptive and data-driven, the only data assumed as inputs being the texts of essays and compositions created by the students when answering OEQ for a single test on a specific occasion. Typically, the process involves exceedingly small data volumes measured by the power of current home computers, but big data when compared with human capabilities. The general idea is to use software to extract useful features from texts, perform lengthy and complex statistical analyses and present the results to the teacher, who, it is believed, will combine this information with his or her knowledge and experience to make decisions on mark allocation. A generic path model is formulated to represent that specific context and the kind of decisions and tasks a teacher should perform, the estimated results being synthesised using graphic displays. The method is illustrated by analysing three corpora of 126 texts originating in three different real learning contexts, time periods, educational levels and disciplines.

The Role of Community-Engaged Learning in Engineering Education for Sustainable Development

This paper presents the positive experience of facilitating over 300 community-engaged engineering projects at an Irish higher-education institution. The projects are framed by a research orientation, a commitment to civic engagement, and building university–community partnerships, city–university partnerships, and partnerships with other official agencies, so that community users can provide real learning problems and contexts for students and researchers and benefit from the results. The paper highlights how well the outlined approach fits with the ideas of engaged scholarship and civic professionalism, and facilitates sustainable development. Students recognise the long-term value of engaging with community partners, understanding their future role in the community as engineers, reinforcing the idea that their work can respond directly to real needs in the community, while promoting the sustainability agenda at the same time. The approach presented in this study will not only enable the development of future models for embedding sustainability in engineering programs, but will also equip future engineers with transferable skills to ensure that sustainable development goes beyond university courses and is practiced every day.

Scratch-based learning objects for novice programmers: exploring quality aspects and perceptions for primary education

ABSTRACT Learning computer programming can be challenging for primary school students due to its abstract concepts. While teachers seek effective ways to introduce such concepts, the application of learning objects (LOs) can potentially reduce the effort of creating new material from and allows teachers to adapt LOs to students’ needs. Although numerous LOs have been developed for multiple disciplines, there is a current research gap using LOs in teaching and learning computer programming at the primary school level. The current paper aims to explore the quality of five Scratch-based LOs created to facilitate teaching and learning programming in primary education. We followed a single instrumental case study collecting data from 25 in-service teachers and 91 primary school students, who, using the LORI instrument, evaluated Scratch-based LOs created in real learning contexts. The results showed that participants assessed the LOs’ quality positively, highlighted their learning effectiveness, pleasant design, and increase in student motivation. While the findings cannot be generalized, the LOs can serve as support material both for teachers to introduce programming, and for students to comprehend key programming concepts. Future work concerns the exploration of the LOs affordability when applied in real situations.

How do Public Officials Learn About Policy? A Field Experiment on Policy Diffusion

AbstractPrior research suggests that partisanship can influence how legislators learn from each other. However, same-party governments are also more likely to share similar issues, ideological preferences and constituency demands. Establishing a causal link between partisanship and policy learning is difficult. In collaboration with a non-profit organization, this study isolates the role of partisanship in a real policy learning context. As part of a campaign promoting a new policy among local representatives in the United States, the study randomized whether the initiative was endorsed by co-partisans, out-partisans or both parties. The results show that representatives are systematically more interested in the same policy when it is endorsed by co-partisans. Bipartisan initiatives also attract less interest than co-partisan policies, and no more interest than out-partisan policies, even in more competitive districts. Together, the results suggest that ideological considerations cannot fully explain partisan-based learning. The study contributes to scholarship on policy diffusion, legislative signaling and interest group access.

Develop Academic Question Recommender Based on Bayesian Network for Personalizing Student’s Practice

Study in Literatures shows that tracing knowledge state of student is corner stone of intelligent tutoring system for personalized learning. In this paper, an academic question recommender based on Bayesian network is developed for personalizing practice question sequence with tracing mastery level of student on knowledge components. This question recommender is discussed with theoretical analysis, and designed and implemented in software engineering way. It provides instructor with tools for building knowledge component network and setting question of course. It also makes student personalize practice questions of course. This question recommender is planned to deploy in real learning context for the future validation of how well such question recommendation improves performance and saves practice time for student.

Analyse du déploiement d’un raisonnement covariationnel en situation chez des élèves de 15 à 18 ans

Many researchers accept that working on covariation helps to construct the notion of functions and promotes comprehension of concepts in differential calculus. However, no study has yet defined the characteristics of the situations that allow this work to take place. We therefore propose a reflection on these characteristics with the assistance of applied covariational reasoning. Based on the Covariation Framework generated by Carlson and her colleagues (Carlson et al., 2001, 2002, 2003, 2015), we describe 13 units of reasoning, a priori, that are applied during functional modeling situations in real learning contexts. Through the creation of four situations and an analysis of data collected during a study among students aged 15 to 18 years, we have refined the descriptions of the units of reasoning and identified the actual reasoning skills used by students in each situation. In this article, we present some of the results—particularly how these units of reasoning manifest in the students’ descriptions of the behaviours of quantities and their growth. We also show the effects that a situation’s written and induced forms of questioning have on the dynamic of reasoning.

Videos in higher education: Making the most of a good thing

There has been a noticeable rise in the use of, and research into, educational videos in tertiary education in the past decade. This is due in no small part to the reduction of expensive barriers to their production and storage, and an increase in access to streaming services that make videos playable anywhere, anytime. Research into educational videos broadly falls into three categories: improving video design, investigating platforms and technologies that increase student engagement, and developing pedagogical approaches that take full advantage of the affordances of videos. A review of key findings in this journal – considered in light of the broader literature – reveals productive lines of inquiry for future research. Notably, experimental research using the lens of Cognitive Load Theory has established that videos should be short, uncluttered, and restricted to one clearly identified learning goal. There is also robust evidence to suggest videos should be accompanied by learning activities, rather than watched passively. In addition to the experimental research findings there is a wealth of research through case studies, such as exploring video based pedagogies liked flipped and blended learning. However, there are key opportunities for further research, such as the need for replications of experimental design principles in real learning contexts, and the development of pedagogical approaches that utilise the particular affordances of educational videos.

When Are Learning Analytics Ready and What Are They Ready For

Learning Analytics as a field of inquiry and community is distinct in the way that it brings together in shared pursuit, the research and practice of a particular kind of educational technology. At times this relationship approaches symbiosis: the annual LAK conference offers opportunities to learn both about the latest theoretical, methodological, and technological innovations as well as challenges and effective strategies for using such innovations to support learning in real world contexts. At other times, we feel pulled in multiple directions by the different priorities of each endeavor. Research is first and foremost concerned with advancing the state of the field by building knowledge, theories, techniques and tools with generalizable implications. Practice is primarily focused on action and implementation to have a positive impact on real world learning contexts. While these aims are not unrelated, they often offer quite different answers to the question of when a learning analytics application is ready to be used in an authentic educational setting with actual learners (and real consequences). At the extreme pole of a research perspective, there is always the temptation to try one more way to optimize an analytic (have we considered all possible features, tried all appropriate algorithms, tweaked all available hyper-parameters, explored all possible visualizations etc.). But from the perspective of practice with pressing problems to address, a tool that is available and sufficiently optimised is better than an unavailable perfect one. The ultimate goal is increased impact on learning not simply improved model accuracy. Of course, as a scholarly pursuit, the field of learning analytics does not seek to only develop and implement innovative data-based technologies, but also develop a knowledge base around them. Thus the key question is how can we make a difference in the world while also engaging in a rigorous knowledge producing process?

Showing Is Knowing: The Potential and Challenges of Using Neurocognitive Measures of Implicit Learning in the Classroom

ABSTRACTThe value of neurocognitive measures to study memory, attention, cognition, and learning is well established. However, the vast majority of work using these tools is performed in tightly controlled lab experiments using simple lab stimuli. This article looks at the viability of using multimodal neurocognitive instruments to measure implicit knowledge in real‐world learning contexts. We focus on some of the most promising neurocognitive tools for this purpose, including eye‐tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near infra‐red spectroscopy (fNIRS). The specific challenges and potential of each tool are considered for use within learning contexts. These tools may be of particular importance to student populations that typically underperform on traditional learning assessments, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, among others. This review concludes with recommendations to the field for further work required to bring objective measures of implicit knowledge to real world learning contexts.

Embedding Experiments: Staking Causal Inference in Authentic Educational Contexts

To identify the ways teachers and educational systems can improve learning, researchers need to make causal inferences. Analyses of existing datasets play an important role in detecting causal patterns, but conducting experiments also plays an indispensable role in this research. In this article, we advocate for experiments to be embedded in real educational contexts, allowing researchers to test whether interventions such as a learning activity, new technology, or advising strategy elicit reliable improvements in authentic student behaviours and educational outcomes. Embedded experiments, wherein theoretically relevant variables are systematically manipulated in real learning contexts, carry strong benefits for making causal inferences, particularly when allied with the data-rich resources of contemporary e-learning environments. Toward this goal, we offer a field guide to embedded experimentation, reviewing experimental design choices, addressing ethical concerns, discussing the importance of involving teachers, and reviewing how interventions can be deployed in a variety of contexts, at a range of scales. Causal inference is a critical component of a field that aims to improve student learning; including experimentation alongside analyses of existing data in learning analytics is the most compelling way to test causal claims.

Quality Assurance for Open Educational Resources: The OERTrust Framework

Learning Objects have met some barriers to their development and effective adoption, which varied from the lack of quality assurance mechanisms to the impossibility of editing and adapting most of them to real teaching and learning contexts. However, with the advent of OER (Open Educational Resources), if the later problem – to retain, reuse and even remix learning content – was meant to be solved, the same could not be said for the first one. Quality assurance is still an unsolved problem in this context, even more complex due to the possibility of versioning and collaborative design brought by OER. Thus, it is necessary to propose validation mechanisms for them, at least establishing some guarantees about their functionality and quality. In this sense, this work aims to discuss OERTrust, a proposal of  supporting framework for OER validation and testing process, considering both versioning and remixing features. OERTrust is based on the principles of validation and testing that come from Software Engineering area and relies on fuzzy logic to define the importance and influence of different tests to each kind of OER. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.3.1

An exploration of medical humanities and College English integrated teaching based on the theory of content and language integrated learning

The integration of medical humanities and College English is based on the actual needs of the development of College English and medical humanities in medical colleges and universities in China. Under the guidance of theory of content and language integrated learning (CLIL), the medical humanities and College English integrated teaching should use English medical literature and medical videos to develop students' medical humanities literacy. It should adopt student-centered teaching approaches, such as case-based teaching, task-based teaching, medical humanistic practice, and autonomous learning. It should also optimize the evaluation methods. The purpose of the teaching model is to create a real English learning context for medical humanities in which students can improve their English proficiency, enrich their medical humanities literacy, and expand their international horizon as well. Key words: Content and language integrated learning; College English; Medical humanities

Implementação de mídias em dispositivos móveis: um framework de aplicação em grande escala na educação a distância

The intensive use of information Technologies has created conditions for the development of a new mode of educational mediation called mobile learning. Considering that there is still little knowledge about the practices and experiences of mobile learning on a large scale and at na institutional level, this study aimed to develop a framework to support the implementation of mobile media in formal teaching, integratedin to distance education programs and with scalability and sustainability requirements. A research process was adopted, based on the Design-Based Research approach, which is a type of research that is developed in real contexts and focused on the design and tests of educational interventions in partnership with professionals of the application area. At the development phase of the research process, a series of decisions were made that established the outline of the initiative, developed a mobile media and evaluated the process. Then the mobile media was applied in a real learning context and the initiative was evaluated from the students' perspective. The framework is presented through a representative diagram of the main stages and implementation activities, as well as a set of design principles that guide the implementation process of the educational mobile media. Implementation stages and their principles deal with: (a) implementation outline and demarcation, (b) design and production of the media and (c) delivery and dissemination of the media in the learning environment.

Exploring situated ambiguity in students’ entrepreneurial learning

PurposeBuilding on entrepreneurial learning research, the purpose of this paper is to argue that the students participating in foreign entrepreneurial education programmes can have realistic entrepreneurial learning experiences. This research addresses two specific questions: how situated ambiguity induced by a foreign culture may contribute to contextual entrepreneurial learning in education, and whether ambiguity induced by cross-cultural situated experience can stimulate critical reflection and important learning outcomes in entrepreneurship and increase entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE).Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted a phenomenological perspective in the research, and used focus group interviews and the critical incident technique to investigate Norwegian master’s students’ experiences of entrepreneurial learning in a long-term practice in an American startup.FindingsThe empirical findings reveal that the students perceived the foreign cultural learning setting as imbued with ambiguity and uncertainty. However, as the students enhanced their understanding of the culture and entrepreneurial milieu through observations and co-participating, they managed to adapt and develop new strategies and methods to cope with the new environment. Eventually, the students became more entrepreneurial and developed their ESE.Practical implicationsThe research demonstrates how educators can design educational programmes that approach real entrepreneurial learning contexts. Nevertheless, the research also displays several ethical dilemmas that educators need to address.Originality/valueThe study delineates a new concept for educational designs called situated ambiguity, which reinforces the essence of situated entrepreneurial learning with cross-cultural learning. This concept offers a promising avenue for educators to approach real entrepreneurial learning in both theory and practice.

Design and Implementation of Location-Based Learning Games: Four Case Studies with “QuesTInSitu: The Game”

Over the past few years the use of educational games for learning purposes has reported many educational benefits in terms of students’ motivation and engagement towards learning. One of the challenges in the research field of Game-Based Learning (GBL) is to create or adapt educational games to teachers’ requirements depending on their particular situations. An approach to face this problem is to provide teachers with strategies that allow them to design meaningful games for their learning scenarios. To address this issue, a metaphor has been proposed for supporting teachers in the design of the so-called location-based learning games. In this study, we describe four real learning contexts, including 16 secondary education teachers use the proposed metaphor to design their own location-based games. Besides, in order to gain meaningful insights about the impact of the designed games in students’ satisfaction, we deployed the teachers’ designs in “QuesTInSitu: The Game”. A total of 253 students from the 4 secondary schools played the designed games. The main findings derived from the evaluation with teachers and students provide meaningful insights about main considerations when designing and deploying location-based learning games for outdoors and indoors.

Environmental literacy in Madeira Island (Portugal): The influence of Demographic Variables

Demographic factors are among those that influence environmental literacy and, particularly,environmentally responsible behaviours, either directly or due to an aggregation effect dependent on other types of variables. Present study evaluates a set of demographic variables as predictors for environmental literacy among 9th grade students from Madeira Island (Portugal). Through a survey involving 491 students, gender, place of residence (rural and urban), 8th grade Natural Sciences discipline performance, participation in school’s environmental activities and, indirectly, socio-economic status were evaluated in their association to environmental literacy and, particularly, to each of its three main components: knowledge, attitude and behaviour. The results confirm three stronger environmental literacy predictors: rural or urban residence, depending on the components considered, higher marks in 8th grade Natural Sciences discipline and higher socio-economic status; and two weaker: female and participation in school’s environmental activities. Our findings found support in previous studies and underline the need to center socio-demographic factors in environmental education practices. Considering demographic variables as the reflex of environmental, economic and socio-cultural contexts, our results corroborate an environmental literacy’s construction framework on the light of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory of human learning, in which real learning contexts play a fundamental role. In fact, also in environmental literacy, learning occurs through the interaction with the social environment and, to be effective, needs real learning contexts. Demographic variables confirmed as being predictors for environmental literacy in Madeira Island students seems to mirror the effects of the above framework and show strong evidences of linkage with socioeconomic status.