Search

Background: As adequate support, virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly introduced into the classroom to help students learn a new language. However, empirical studies exploring the educational potential of using 360° spherical video‐based virtual reality (SVVR) in high‐school Chinese language classrooms are still lacking. Objectives: A mind mapping‐based SVVR learning system is proposed for international high‐school students' Chinese courses and examines its effects on improving Chinese learning achievements and perceptions among Grade 10 students who learn Chinese as a foreign language. Methods: This study adopted a quasi‐experiment design. Participants (N = 66) were assigned to one of three conditions: mind mapping‐based SVVR (MMBSVVR), conventional SVVR (CSVVR), or traditional lecturing (TL). Our mixed‐method approach employed pre‐and post‐tests to measure Chinese learning achievements, questionnaires to measure Chinese learning motivation, problem‐solving ability, and self‐efficacy, and semi‐structured interviews to further explore students' feelings and attitudes about Chinese courses in corresponding learning environments. Results and Conclusions: The results showed that the MMBSVVR classroom significantly improved high students' Chinese learning achievements in Chinese vocabulary and making sentence, problem‐solving ability, and self‐efficacy. Moreover, SVVR stimulates students' learning interest and class participation, and mind mapping provides students with a clear guide to arrange the knowledge. These findings help interpret the relationships between MMBSVVR and learning achievements, Chinese learning motivation, problem‐solving ability, and self‐efficacy in an international high school Chinese courses, thus providing insight on integrating MMBSVVR into existing classrooms. Lay Description: What is Already Known about this Topic: By creating fully immersive 3D environments, 360° spherical video‐based virtual reality (SVVR) in promoting language learning has been confirmed by many scholars with a focus on English language learning.Mind mapping effectively enables second language learners to review and retain new words in the target language meaningfully. Also, it can create a more vivid learning atmosphere through images and graphics and promote learners' memory and learning motivation. What This Paper Adds: A mind mapping‐based SVVR learning system has been developed with the support of the constructivism theory.A mind mapping‐based SVVR learning system is proposed to facilitate international students' Chinese learning performance in Chinese vocabulary acquisition and sentence construction.In addition to promoting international students' learning outcomes, the proposed approach indicated promising results in learning motivation, problem‐solving ability, and self‐efficacy. Implications for Practice and/or Policy: This study provides an evidence base for further research through the utilization of VR learning environments in Chinese language classrooms.This study advocates introducing SVVR technology in the Chinese learning classrooms to increase the learning context for international students. It is also worth encouraging scholars to design VR learning systems with different learning strategies.Due to the cognitive requirements of the Chinese language learning process, it is necessary to introduce mind maps in the SVVR learning system to assist students in constructing knowledge and combining prior and new knowledge to generate long‐term memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While a number of learner factors have been identified to impact students' collaborative learning, there has been little systematic research into how patterns of students' collaborative learning may differ by their learning orientations. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate: (1) variations in students' learning orientations by their conceptions, approaches, and perceptions; (2) the patterns of students' collaborations by variations in their learning orientations and (3) the contribution of patterns of collaborations to academic achievement. Methods: A cohort of 174 Chinese undergraduates in a blended engineering course were surveyed for their conceptions of learning, approaches to learning and to using online learning technologies, and perceptions of e‐learning, to identify variations in their learning orientations. Students' collaborations and mode of collaborations were collected through an open‐ended social network analysis (SNA) questionnaire. Results and Conclusions: A hierarchical cluster analysis identified an 'understanding' and 'reproducing' learning orientations. Based on students' learning orientations and their choices to collaborate, students were categorized into three mutually exclusive collaborative group, namely Understanding Collaborative group, Reproducing Collaborative group and Mixed Collaborative group. SNA centrality measures demonstrated that students in the Understanding Collaborative group had more collaborations and stayed in a better position in terms of capacity to gather information. Both students' approaches to learning and students' average collaborations significantly contributed to their academic achievement, explaining 3% and 4% of variance in their academic achievement respectively. The results suggest that fostering a desirable learning orientation may help improve students' collaborative learning. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: There are variations in students' learning orientations.Various learner factors have been found to shape patterns of students' collaborations. What this paper adds: Patterns of students' collaborations differed by variations in students' learning orientations.Students' average collaborations significantly contributed to academic achievement. Implications of the findings for practioners: Fostering a desirable learning orientation may improve collaborative learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Socially shared regulation is a vital factor that affects students' collaborative programming performance. However, students' weak group metacognitive skills or inability to adopt shared regulation mechanisms lead to unsatisfactory collaborative programming learning. Objectives: This study proposes an approach to support socially shared regulation in collaborative programming learning in order to enhance students' programming achievements and group metacognition. Methods: A quasi‐experimental study was conducted in a junior high school over a 10‐week period to investigate the impact of the proposed approach on programming achievements, group metacognition, and cognitive load. Forty eighth‐grade students participated in the study, with the experimental group learning via the proposed approach, while the control group used the conventional collaborative programming learning approach. Results and Conclusions: The analysis included data from 38 participants. The experimental results showed that the programming achievements and group metacognition of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group. Additionally, the proposed approach did not increase the cognitive load of the students. Implications: This study has important implications for teachers, learners, and researchers in collaborative programming and social regulation. Our proposed collaborative programming learning approach enhances learners' social regulation and performance, providing teachers with an effective tool for improving collaborative programming learning. This study also extends the field of socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL), demonstrating its potential to improve the effectiveness of collaborative programming learning and highlighting the need for future research to explore the mechanisms of SSRL in this context. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Programming learning is difficult for most learners.Collaborative programming is an effective method of programming learning.Students' weak group metacognitive skills or inability to adopt shared regulation mechanisms lead to unsatisfactory collaborative programming learning. What this paper adds?: This study proposes a method to enhance collaborative programming learning by supporting socially shared regulation among students.The study utilized a quasi‐experimental to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in improving students' programming learning performance.The shared regulation approach was found to significantly improve students' programming achievements and group metacognition when compared to conventional collaborative programming approaches.Importantly, the shared regulation approach did not increase the cognitive load of the students, indicating its potential for practical implementation in programming education. The implications of study findings for practitioners: This study has shown that an approach that supports social shared regulation can improve student performance in collaborative programming learning, and that teachers can use this approach to help students learn programming better collaboratively.This study also contributes to the field of social shared regulated learning by demonstrating how it can support collaborative programming and improve its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Group size is one of the important factors that affect collaborative learning, however, there is no consensus in the literature on how many students should the groups be composed of during the problem‐solving process. Objectives: This study investigated the effect of group size in a K‐12 introductory Artificial Intelligence course by comparing the students' cognitive load, learning motivation, collaborative problem‐solving quality, and in‐classroom interaction between two‐ and three‐student groups. Methods: Forty‐eight high school students were randomly assigned to two kinds of groups (i.e., the two‐student group, and the three‐student group, each consisting of 24 students). During the experiment, Xiaofei robots were used to teach the theoretical and practical content of five AI topics over 6 weeks for 1.5 h each week. Results: The ANOVA results indicated that group size mattered in the AI course, the two‐student group was more effective in terms of enhancing students' learning motivation and collaborative problem‐solving quality, as well as imposing more cognitive load than the three‐student group. The advantage was more obvious in the practical problem context. The Lag Sequential Analysis results indicated that more collaborative learning behavioural sequences existed in the two‐student group than in the three‐student groups. Contribution: This research provides empirical evidence and potential guidance for group design in Artificial Intelligence Education. Although group size did not affect students' learning achievement, it affected learning motivation, cognitive load, and problem‐solving quality and processes. Two‐student groups work better than three‐student groups in the AI course. Lay Description: Group size affected students' learning motivation, cognitive load, and problem solving process, but not their learning achievement.The two‐student group was more effective in terms of enhancing students' learning motivation and collaborative problem‐solving quality, while imposing more cognitive load than the three‐student groups.The Lag Sequential Analysis results indicated that more collaborative learning behavioural sequences existed in the two‐student group than in the three‐student groups. The tendency was more obvious in the practical problem context than in the theoretical problem context.Overall, in terms of problem‐solving and learning, group size should be considered in instructional design of AI courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to examine how a collaborative social annotation tool can be used to support collaborative learning in translation instruction for EFL students. Participants were 100 undergraduate students who were English majors in a southeast university in China. An experiment with crossover design was carried out to examine the participants' learning and motivation in the social annotation‐supported condition and the traditional instruction condition. The results showed that students received higher scores on their translation work and rated their perceived learning higher when they completed the translation assignments in the social annotation‐support condition than in the traditional instruction condition. In addition, participants reported that they were more motivated when they completed the translation assignments in the social annotation‐supported condition, though participants with different levels of language proficiency might be motivated by different reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]