Real Classroom Research Articles

How does realistic classroom noise affect auditory selective attention?

In the past years, more and more effort has been made to bring the reality in the lab to investigate cognitive performance in a close-to real life manner and, thus, increase the validity of current research. A first step towards being ecologically valid is using a dynamic binaural reproduction, which offers an accurate representation and allows the participants to engage in the acoustic scene. In a study on noise effects regarding the auditory selective attention of children, Loh et al. 2021 found that children were impaired by noise, while adults remained unaffected. However, they used white noise at a comparably low signal-to-noise ratio. To investigate the impact of a realistic scenario, the current work investigated a fluctuating realistic classroom noise using typical noise sources such as writing and the movement of chairs. Additionally, semantically meaningful speech was added as an attention capturing noise source. To get first insights into the effects of this realistic noise, a pilot study was conducted with adult participants in a virtual classroom scene.

Trainee Teachers Attitudes toward Macro-Teaching: Resource Impact and Mentors Perspectives

Macro-teaching is a technique used to prepare trainee teachers for the real classroom setting. This technique enables trainee teachers to experiment and learn relevant teaching skills through interactions with their lead mentors and mentors. This study assessed the attitude of trainee teachers towards macro-teaching from the perspective of lead mentors and mentors. The study also assessed the importance of school resources in macro-teaching exercise. Using a qualitative case study research design, and Braun and Clarke’s inductive thematic analysis approach 194 respondents’ responses were used for analysis. The study findings revealed a positive attitude among trainee teachers toward the macro-teaching exercise. It also revealed that school resources, particularly infrastructure and teaching and learning resources were inadequate and also not available in some public basic schools in the Bono East region. The findings found this to adversely affect trainee teachers’ competency development in the teaching profession. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education through the Ghana Education Service should provide school resources such as staff common rooms and reading materials for basic schools in the municipality to promote quality teaching and learning in schools.

The EnTPACK rubric: development, validation, and reliability of an instrument for measuring pre-service science teachers’ enacted TPACK

Science instruction can benefit from the use of digital technologies if pre-service teachers are given opportunities to acquire Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge (TPACK) as part of their studies. However, the prevailing self-report approach to TPACK measurement does not allow conclusions to be drawn about enacted TPACK, which is rarely assessed in real classroom situations. In addition, instruments designed to measure TPACK enactment lack descriptive clarity and no single instrument is used to assess the three relevant phases of teacher competencies (lesson planning, implementation, and reflection). The present paper addresses this gap by presenting the development and validation of a comprehensive rubric for assessing the enacted TPACK of pre-service science teachers. To operationalize the “fuzzy” aspects of the framework, the rubric targets a specific use of digital media and instructional approach in science teaching: student-generated explainer videos and animations. At the core of the development process is a theory- and literature-based systematic review of (1) existing instruments for assessing pre-service science teachers’ enacted TPACK and (2) instructional criteria for student-generated explainer videos in science classes. The resulting rubric allows valid conclusions given the appropriate conditions, has demonstrated reliability, and excels due to its specific focus, high degree of differentiation, systematic grounding in theory and literature, objective grading criteria, and comprehensive applicability to all three phases of teacher competencies.

An experimental test of the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect using an immersive virtual reality classroom

Academic self-concept plays a central role in successful learning and is substantially shaped by social comparisons. Research on the so-called Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE) has yielded a highly robust and generalizable pattern of negative effects of higher class/school average achievement on students’ self-concept when controlling for individual achievement. However, most BFLPE studies have not provided information about the causes behind or the mechanisms underlying the proposed effects. To address this, we used a fully immersive virtual reality (IVR) classroom to experimentally test the extent to which students recognized performance-related classroom behavior as implicit social comparison information and how these perceptions explained differences in students’ self-concepts. Participants (N = 381 sixth-grade students) experienced an authentic yet standardized IVR teaching situation with virtual classmates who exhibited different performance levels (operationalized as 20% vs. 35% vs. 65% vs. 80% of classmates raising their hands). Hand-raising behavior had a significant positive effect on students’ perceptions of the class’ performance level (d20% vs. 65% = 0.60; d20% vs. 80% = 1.24). In line with the BFLPE, results showed a negative effect of higher performing classmates on students’ situational self-concept (d20% vs. 80% = 0.30). Students’ perceptions of the class’ performance level fully explained the effect of classmates’ hand-raising behavior on students’ situational self-concept. The study’s experimental approach provided new insights into the emergence of social comparison effects in the classroom, highlighting the major role of students’ perceptions of their classmates’ performance-related behavior, and moreover demonstrated the general potential of using IVR in classroom research.

Emocje doświadczane przez osoby uczące się języka obcego w klasie postcovidowej

The process of returning to face-to-face education was not easy and more often than not accompanied by mixed feelings, from joy to fear and uncertainty (Witkowski et.al. 2021). The aim of this paper was to examine students’ emotions associated with FL learning in a postCOVID classroom. The sample in question constituted 103 secondary school students from the Silesian Voivodship in Poland, who had spent almost three semesters at home on distance learning, and, at the time of completing the questionnaire in September 2022, were entering the first school year of study without any COVID-19 restrictions. The emotions studied were related to the classroom environment, namely, the lesson organization, teaching materials, the person of the teacher and peers, to name a few. The findings show that a large majority are in favour of face-to-face learning and appreciate a direct language contact that is available in a real classroom setting. The data collected allowed for formulating suggestions on how to improve the postCOVID classroom learning to meet students’ expectations and deal with habits transferred from remote education.

BK-SAD: A Large Scale Dataset for Student Activity Recognition

Skeleton-based human action recognition has emerged as a prominent research topic in the field of artificial intelligence due to its broad applicability in a wide range of domains, including but not limited to healthcare, security and surveillance, entertainment, and intelligent environments. In this paper, we propose a novel data collection methodology and present BK-Student Activity Dataset (BK-SAD), a new 2D dataset for student activity recognition in smart classrooms that outperforms the existing NTU RGB+D 120 dataset, SBU Kinect Interaction dataset. Our dataset contains three classes: hand raising, doze-off, and normal activities. The dataset was collected using cameras placed in real classroom environments and consisted of video data from multiple viewpoints. The dataset contains over 2700 videos of students raising their hands, over 1700 videos of students dozing off during class, and over 8500 videos of normal activities. In addition, to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed dataset, we give some baseline performance figures for neural network architectures trained and tested for student activity recognition on BK-SAD dataset. These ConvNet architectures demonstrate significant performance improvement on the proposed dataset. The effectiveness of the proposed novel data collection methodology and BK-SAD dataset in this paper will enable further research and development of activity recognition models for classroom environments, with potential applications in smart education and intelligent classroom management systems.

Methodologies, Strategies and Tools for Active, Meaningful and Differentiated Learning

For learning to be truly relevant, motivating, and long-lasting, it is necessary to go beyond memorization and repetition. For this, it is required to apply active, significant and differentiated methodologies, strategies, and teaching tools. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explain four methodological proposals (Backward Design, Fink’s Taxonomy, Differentiated Instruction, and Family of Social Models) that will allow to achieve this type of desired learning, and analyze how they can be applied in a real classroom. The following paper analyzes how to apply these methodological proposals in a 7th grade class of Social Sciences and suggests specific tools to be used and explains in depth how to carry them out. This paper allows us to see the importance of a) first stating the objectives and evaluation, to then design the activities to be used (Backward Design), b) the importance of not only reaching knowledge, but also other dimensions like application, integration, human dimension, importance/values, and learning how to learn in our teaching process (Fink’s Taxonomy), c) the benefits of adapting the teaching-learning process to the needs, skills, and interests of students (Differentiated Instruction), and d) the importance of learning as a social and cooperative process, not an individual one (Family of Social Models).

Investigating social comparison behaviour in an immersive virtual reality classroom based on eye-movement data

Higher-achieving peers have repeatedly been found to negatively impact students’ evaluations of their own academic abilities (i.e., Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect). Building on social comparison theory, this pattern is assumed to result from students comparing themselves to their classmates; however, based on existing research designs, it remains unclear how exactly students make use of social comparison information in the classroom. To determine the extent to which students (N = 353 sixth graders) actively attend and respond to social comparison information in the form of peers’ achievement-related behaviour, we used eye-tracking data from an immersive virtual reality (IVR) classroom. IVR classrooms offer unprecedented opportunities for psychological classroom research as they allow to integrate authentic classroom scenarios with maximum experimental control. In the present study, we experimentally varied virtual classmates’ achievement-related behaviour (i.e., their hand-raising in response to the teacher’s questions) during instruction, and students’ eye and gaze data showed that they actively processed this social comparison information. Students who attended more to social comparison information (as indicated by more frequent and longer gaze durations at peer learners) had less favourable self-evaluations. We discuss implications for the future use of IVR environments to study behaviours in the classroom and beyond.

Body in motion, attention in focus: A virtual reality study on teachers' movement patterns and noticing

When people navigate a space to perform tasks, their body and eye movements are closely linked. Within the classroom context, characteristics of teachers' body movements may be related to the noticing of relevant classroom events, in particular, visual attention to student disruptions. In the current study, we investigated this relationship in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) classroom that offered a standardized environment for tracking teachers' body and eye movements. Based on time series data collected during a short teaching task with 21 preservice teachers, we conducted K-means clustering with body movement features. We identified three distinctive patterns, which we labeled as immobile, anchored, and dynamic (body) movement patterns. Teachers with dynamic movement patterns venture away from the teacher's desk to far corners of the room; they don't dwell in one location for long but rather move continuously to various parts of the classroom, creating a dispersed movement. Dynamic movement patterns were associated with the best visual attention performance, defined as the number, speed, and duration of fixations on a classroom disruption. Our findings demonstrate the existence of unique and differentiable movement patterns among preservice teachers that have implications for teacher noticing, teacher–student interaction, and instructional quality.

Okul Öncesi Öğretmen Adaylarının Öğretmenlik Uygulaması Yoluyla Fen Öğretimine Yönelik Özgüvenlerindeki Değişim

TTo investigate how pre-service early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ self-confidence in teaching science was changed through their teaching practice course, a qualitative case study research design was used in the current study. The study involved 15 senior pre-service ECE teachers who were enrolled in a teaching practice course as part of their teacher education program. The study was created with their experiential learning opportunities in account. Participants developed five distinct science activity plans that are connected with several other disciplines and implemented their science activities in a real classroom environment for this purpose. Individual pre and post-interviews were conducted with them to investigate the change in their self-confidence in teaching science. The data analysis revealed four major themes: 1) prior knowledge and interest in science, 2) experience of teaching science in a real classroom, 3) expectation from teaching practice course, and 4) feelings when preparing activities and teaching science. The study’s findings revealed that a teaching practice course was quite helpful in enhancing preservice teachers' self-confidence in science teaching and changing their interests and feelings about science. The study's findings improved understanding of the importance of experiential learning and practicing in teacher education.

The The Use of Zoom Meeting for Distance Learning in Teaching English to Accounting Students of Politeknik Sawunggalih Aji Kutoarjo

Abstract To avoid the spread of Covid19 government closes all of the education sectors from primary school to university level and suggests the distance learning by utilizing technology connected to the internet. Zoom Meeting is one of the platforms that can be used by educators to teach their students in distance teaching and learning. This application allows learning activities or discussions like in face to face learning. Thus, the lecturer and students can do their teaching and learning activity like in offline teaching and learning activity. The aim of this research is to describe the condition that occur in distance learning process by using Zoom Cloud Meeting. This is descriptive qualitative method with data collection techniques performed by distributing questionnaire via Google Form and doing interview through Zoom Cloud Meeting to dig more information of respondents’ questionnaire answer. The results showed that students gave positive responses that they felt enjoy in learning by using Zoom Meeting. Meanwhile, the students also faced several challenges in using Zoom Meeting during learning which include internet network and consuming much internet quota. However, Zoom Cloud Meeting application is effective to substitute offline meeting in pandemic situation because it enables discussion like in a real classroom.

Integrative Lighting in Classrooms: Preliminary Results from Simulations and Field Measurements

The paper presents results from a study on integrative lighting in real middle school classrooms located in a school building in Turin, Italy. The contribution of both daylighting and electric lighting was considered. Besides the existing configuration of electric lighting systems (fluorescent luminaires), a set of six possible retrofitting solutions was considered, all using LED luminaires. The research addressed two main objectives: (i) To verify if the circadian values (melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance m-EDI) in the classrooms could meet the recommended values reported in recent literature, for instance, in the WELL protocol, (ii) to assess the influence on integrative lighting (photopic and melanopic illuminances) played by the electric lighting, as a function of the different lighting systems, and by daylighting, as a function of different room orientations and sky conditions. Results showed that the existing spaces benefit from high daylighting amount, whilst the existing lighting systems provide an insufficient m-EDI. Even when last-generation LED lighting systems were ideally used for retrofitting, no solution was able to meet the three-point WELL recommendation, while two solutions only allowed the one-point recommendation to be met. Some design implications concerned with the results were critically discussed.

Multimodal learning analytics—In‐between student privacy and encroachment: A systematic review

AbstractSince the emergence of learning analytics (LA) in 2011 as a distinct field of research and practice, multimodal learning analytics (MMLA), shares an interdisciplinary approach to research and practice with LA in its use of technology (eg, low cost sensors, wearable technologies), the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and the provision of automated, mostly real‐time feedback to students and instructors. Much of MMLA takes place in experimental and laboratory settings, researching students' learning in in‐between spaces—between research and classroom application, in‐between students' learning in private and public spaces as researchers track students' learning both in their use of social media and connected devices, and through the use of context‐aware and adaptive devices; and lastly, in‐between respecting students' privacy while increasingly using intrusive technologies. This study seeks to establish what is known about MMLA in terms of rationale for applications, the nature and scope of data collected, the study contexts, evidence of commercial interests and/or downstream uses of students' data, and consideration of ethics, privacy, and the protection of student data. This systematic review analysed 192 articles using a search string consisting of various combinations of multimodal (data) and learning analytics. The main findings include, inter alia, that though MMLA provide insights into learning and teaching, there is little evidence of MMLA findings successfully being applied to classroom settings, at scale. Given that the nature of MMLA research often necessitates the use of a range of (intrusive) sensors and recording technologies and can include children in its samples; the encroachment of students' right to privacy is a huge concern that is not addressed. There is also a need to reconsider the rationale for collecting multimodal data, the conditions under which such data collection will be ethical and in service of students' wellness, and the boundaries that should protect their (multimodal) data. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Experimental educational research predates both multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) and educational data mining (EDM). MMLA has been an integral part of learning analytics as research focus and practice since its inception. The increased digitisation and datafication, advances in technology (eg, sensor technology, geo‐tracking, etc.) and a growing normalisation of wearable technologies provides greater scope for collecting multimodal data. There is a vast body of published MMLA research providing a range of insight into students' and educators' behaviours aiming to increase the effectiveness of teaching. What this paper adds While there are several studies providing insights into the state of MMLA research, this study provides insight to a selected range of factors in MMLA research such as the type of research (empirical/conceptual); the nature and scope of data collected; the sample populations (pre‐higher education, higher education, etc.); evidence of commercial interests or consideration of downstream uses; issues pertaining to consent, privacy, data protection and ethics; and evidence of how findings were used to improve teaching and learning. The vast majority of MMLA research targets higher education, is empirical in nature and is based on relatively small samples of participation in experimental settings. Confirms previous research that found the predominance of small samples, and a lack of replicability and, as a result, lacking scalability. That there is very little explicit discussion of the ethical and privacy implications and data protection, either at design stage or for future implementation. Similarly, that there is little consideration of potential commercial interests or downstream uses of data. Implications for practice and/or policy MMLA in its essence requires interdisciplinary approaches and teams. For MMLA to move beyond small‐scale, experimental settings to application in real (classroom) settings, larger, replicable studies should be conducted together with ways to make study findings actionable for teachers and students. Ethical issues, commercial interests and downstream uses of collected data must be considered within the design and approval of MMLA research.

Revitalize Use Language English on Unit Education

This study aims at revitalizing the role of the English language in education, where it becomes the house of the students for most time in their lives. When something wrong happens and goes on the paradigm conformation of this revitalization, shifting assumptions should become one of the efforts and be strived by one of the most element who takes main responsibility on education itself – teacher. this study explores empirically and theoretically the teachers' paradigm on the use of English language in the real classroom. The participants were the teachers from private schools in Sidenreng Rappang joining a workshop due to Study Day Teachers conducted by the foundations. The workshop results were reflected and interpreted by the involvement of a related-literature reviews from previously researchers and experts - journal articles and scientific books.

Augmented Reality for Teaching Storytelling in a Rural Foundation Phase Primary School: Integrating a Place-Based Approach

Augmented reality (AR) has recently become a new leading edge in mobile-assisted language learning attributed to the popularity of smartphones. The place-based approach (PBA) is a situated, context-rich teaching and learning modality characterized by its relationship to place. AR and PBA have proven to be useful in educational settings; however, few studies have observed them being used jointly. This study aims to explore the combination of AR and PBA in teaching storytelling in a foundation phase (FP) rural primary school. Based on current trends, the study also aims to design learning principles for teaching that will help language teachers integrate this innovative technology and approach into literacy teaching. The study was tested with two FP teachers and 12 FP learners in a real classroom and carried out with qualitative observations and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that learners are more motivated and interested in activities that have been enhanced because they encourage problem-solving, discovery, and socialization. The findings also suggest that technological interventions, particularly when learners work as a team, may have a bigger impact than non-technology-integrated instruction. These results offer demonstrable support for technology use and have useful results for future practice.

The Effect of Video Analysis of Inquiry School Practices on Pre-Service Teachers’ Scientific Skills Knowledge

ABSTRACT This study provides evidence of the effect of video analysis of real classroom situations as a support for promoting the professional vision among primary education pre-service teachers. Specifically, it focuses on the Science Process Skills involved in scientific inquiry when teaching through this method. This quasi-experimental study (n = 90) analyzes a didactic strategy based on the noticing and coding of inquiry teaching practices in school contexts. It aims to encourage pre-service teachers’ knowledge of the Science Process Skills. The quantitative results show a significant improvement in all these skills in the experimental group, mainly with regard to the proficiency of Planning and Experimentation and Interpretation skills. These data are congruent with the results obtained from the qualitative analysis of the codification engaged in by this group. The results of this study contribute to responding to the need for resources in the scientific inquiry education of pre-service teachers in primary education. Video analysis was observed to help mobilize a wide range of concepts involving knowledge of the Science Process Skills that are studied in the initial stages of teacher education.

Adding a Web-Based Virtual Reality Classroom Experience to a Hybrid, Blended Course Modality

The blended classroom is a unique space for face-to-face (F2F) interaction and online learning. The blended classroom has three distinct interaction types: in-person synchronous, virtual synchronous, and virtual asynchronous; each of these modalities lends itself to different forms of extended reality. This case study looks at using a virtual reality (VR) classroom for an online synchronous weekly meetings for three upper-division or advanced (junior and senior level) higher education design classes at a university. The use of social web VR for a classroom can offer a collaborative, real-time environment that bridges the gap between virtual video conferences and gaming platforms. This paper examines how to use social web VR in a virtual classroom. Mixed methods were used to collect usability data at the end of the semester survey. The system usability scale (SUS) and several qualitative questions gathered student feedback. Overall, the students enjoyed using the VR classroom, but audio issues seemed to be the most significant pain point. While the overall response was positive, this study will address several areas for improvement from both the student and instructor perspectives. Social, web-based VR offers promising potential. Designing a human-centered virtual environment and considering all participants’ total user experience is critical to a successful learning tool.

Teachers' Beliefs of Coronavirus on Online Learning

The learning and simplification in the 21st century particularly due to covid-19 is a real challenge for each individual teacher. Virtual classroom, multimedia, mobile learning, electronic learning, and cloud technologies as the components of digital learning play a vital role in this century but a sudden shift to totally online learning, instead of real classroom, has triggered teachers to change in their learning and simplification. Hence, this study is carried out to explore teachers’ beliefs of how corona virus impact on online learning. This study applied the qualitative study with 58 informants using the purposive sampling method. Motivation, engagement, social relationships, entertainment, creativity, and virtual experiments are the themes identified from this study. The impact of the coronavirus on online learning has been profound, affecting various aspects of education.

Recognition of Student Engagement State in a Classroom Environment Using Deep and Efficient Transfer Learning Algorithm

A student’s engagement in a real classroom environment usually varies with respect to time. Moreover, both genders may also engage differently during lecture procession. Previous research measures students’ engagement either from the assessment outcome or by observing their gestures in online or real but controlled classroom environments with limited students. However, most works either manually assess the engagement level in online class environments or use limited features for automatic computation. Moreover, the demographic impact on students’ engagement in the real classroom environment is limited and needs further exploration. This work is intended to compute student engagement in a real but least controlled classroom environment with 45 students. More precisely, the main contributions of this work are twofold. First, we proposed an efficient transfer-learning-based VGG16 model with extended layer, and fine-tuned hyperparameters to compute the students’ engagement level in a real classroom environment. Overall, 90% accuracy and 0.5 N seconds computational time were achieved in terms of computation for engaged and non-engaged students. Subsequently, we incorporated inferential statistics to measure the impact of time while performing 14 experiments. We performed six experiments for gender impact on students’ engagement. Overall, inferential analysis reveals the positive impact of time and gender on students’ engagement levels in a real classroom environment. The comparisons were also performed by various transfer learning algorithms. The proposed work may help to improve the quality of educational content delivery and decision making for educational institutions.

Diagnostic Abilities of Novice Teachers

This paper discusses diagnostic abilities of novice teachers of English as a foreign language in Poland as demonstrated through analyzing critical incidents (CIs). A case study, designed to explore patterns and regularities in cognitive processes that practitioners activate to examine disorienting situations in their educational context, provided evidence of effective mental work of beginner teachers at the verbal and conceptual levels. Specifically-structured written reports on what the instructors considered critical moments in their teaching practice served as a tool to verbalize how they represent, interpret, and value phenomena in the FL classroom by activating and integrating various sources of professional knowledge. The data analysis, which included both identification of the character of mental representations the subjects stimulated during the recall as well as higher order thinking operations on these representations, led to the conclusion that the inexperienced teachers show a degree of efficacy to register relations and variation in classroom realities, to problematize the unproblematic, to take position on matters, and to formulate relevant feedback for their future didactic moves. This encourages a hypothesis that teachers’ diagnostic abilities are not necessarily determined by the current state of their professional expertise and that limited classroom experience does not suppress adequate cognitive and affective responses to problems in beginner practitioners.