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Project-based learning (PBL) aims to foster students' problem-solving ability and collaboration by engaging them in completing a project in teams. Researchers have indicated the importance of guiding students to make comparisons and reflection during the process of project-based learning. Therefore, the present research proposed a peer assessment-based PBL (PA-PBL) approach to boost students' PBL performances. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experiment was conducted for 3 weeks. A total of 110 secondary students were divided into an experimental group learning with the PA-PBL approach and a control group learning with the conventional PBL (C-PBL) approach. The students' problem-solving tendency, learning achievement, and collaboration tendency were evaluated. The experimental results indicated that the PA-PBL approach improved the students' learning achievement, especially for those students with higher problem-solving tendency. In terms of collaboration tendency, it was found that the PA-PBL approach benefited the lower problem-solving tendency students more than the C-PBL approach, while there was no difference between the higher problem-solving tendency students in the two groups. The experimental results also indicated that the PA-PBL approach could better enhance students' problem-solving tendencies than the C-PBL approach.

In artwork appreciation activities, visiting physical exhibitions in art museums is often limited by time, distance and cost. Thus, conventional teaching is mostly conducted through textbooks, presentation slides or videos. However, by presenting artwork appreciation through a lecture, it is difficult for students to feel the beauty of artworks, and they can hardly develop accurate appreciation knowledge and critical thinking. To tackle this problem, this study proposed an experiential learning-based spherical video-based virtual reality (EL-SVVR) learning approach based on the experiential learning theory to guide students to browse world-famous artworks and experience the features of artwork creation. This study developed an EL-SVVR learning system and adopted a quasi-experimental design to determine whether the EL-SVVR learning approach improved students' performance in artwork appreciation in comparison with the conventional teaching approach. A total of 45 university students from two classes who participated in an elective art course were recruited in the study. One class was assigned to be the experimental group and adopted the EL-SVVR learning approach, while the other class was assigned to be the control group and adopted the conventional technology-supported learning (CTL) approach. The results showed that in comparison with the CTL approach, the EL-SVVR learning approach enhanced students' learning achievement, learning motivation, self-efficacy, critical thinking and performance in digital painting creation during artwork appreciation.

In traditional instruction, teachers generally deliver the content of textbooks to students via lectures, making teaching activities lack vibrancy. Moreover, in such a one-to-many teaching mode, the teacher is usually unable to check on individual students' learning status or to provide immediate feedback to resolve their learning problems. Chatbots provide an opportunity to address this problem. However, conventional chatbots generally serve as information providers (i.e., providing relevant information by matching keywords in a conversation) rather than as decision-making advisors (i.e., using a knowledge-base with a decision-making mechanism to help users solve problems). Thus, this study proposes an expert decision-making-based chatbot to facilitate individual students' construction of knowledge during the learning process. A quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the differences in the performances and perceptions of students using the expert decision-making-based chatbot (EDM-chatbot) and the conventional chatbot (C-chatbot) in the activities of a geography course. One class of 35 students was the experimental group, using the EDM-chatbot. The other class of 35 students was the control group, using the C-chatbot. The results of the study showed that the EDM-chatbot combined with expert decision-making knowledge significantly improved students' learning achievement and learning enjoyment as well as reducing their learning anxiety, showing the value of the proposed approach.

For professional development programs, students' professional identity and learning perceptions and earning performances have been recognized as important educational objectives. Scholars have indicated that engaging students in social interactions facilitates their deep and diverse thinking, and hence to promoting their learning outcomes. However, in traditional instruction, students generally learn in an individual learning mode and hesitate to interact with peers and teachers. To address this problem, a mobile team-based competition approach to situate students in social interactions was proposed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in a college curriculum design course. 88 students in a teacher education program participated in the experiment, including 42 in the experimental group learning with the proposed approach, and 46 in the control group learning with the conventional mobile individual competition approach. The results showed that the proposed approach outperformed the mobile individual competition approach in terms of learning attitude, collaborative learning tendency and professional identity. It is found that the students generally perceived the proposed learning approach to be an effective way to encourage knowledge sharing, promote collaboration awareness and improve learning attitudes and motivation.

Fostering students' computer programming skills has become an important educational issue in the globe. However, it remains a challenge for students to understand those abstract concepts when learning computer programming, implying the need to provide instant learning diagnosis and feedback in computer programming activities. In this study, a Two-Tier Test-Based Programming Training (T[superscript 3]PT) approach was proposed. Accordingly, an online learning system was developed to provide students with precision feedback for guiding them to identify misconceptions of computer programming to improve their computer programming learning achievement. In order to examine the effects of the proposed approach, a learning system was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted. Two classes of 99 eighth-grade students from Taiwan were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group used the learning system based on the T[superscript 3]PT approach, while the control group used the conventional learning system. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach was significantly superior to the conventional programming learning approach in terms of students' programming logic concepts, problem-solving awareness, technology acceptance, and satisfaction with the learning approach. Accordingly, discussion and suggestions are provided for future research.

At present, environmental issues are of concern to all countries, especially for developing countries, and education on waste sorting is urgent. However, it remains a challenge to improve students' learning achievement and engagement in environmental education. Researchers have pointed out the potential of digital games for promoting students' learning motivation. In addition, the two-tier testing mechanism has been recognized as an effective tool for correcting students' misconceptions and promoting their in-depth thinking. Therefore, this study proposed a two-tier testing-based digital gaming approach. To verify the effectiveness of the approach, a digital game was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted. The participants were two classes of fifth graders, with one class as the experimental group using the two-tier test-based digital game and the other class as the control group learning with the conventional digital game. The results showed that the digital game-based learning with two-tier testing model was conducive to students' improved academic performance compared with the conventional digital game-based learning model, especially for students in the low-level group, who were able to make greater progress. In addition, the approach was effective in terms of reducing students' cognitive load and improving their flow experience.

As one of the core skills of the 21st century, computational thinking has received increasing attention from educators and researchers. Although some research has been conducted on computational thinking, few studies examined the impact of learning activities on students' computation thinking skills from the perspective of cognitive development. Based on the theory of scaffolding instruction, a progressive thinking training approach with flowcharts was proposed to cultivate students' computational thinking skills. A quasi-experiment was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. Forty-nine Chinese tertiary students undertaking a programming course were randomly assigned into two groups -- the experimental and control groups. During the course, the experimental group received progressive training, and the control group received non-progressive training. The results showed that the experimental group gained a significantly higher level of academic achievement than the control group. Meanwhile, the experimental group showed a remarkable improvement in programming self-efficacy. Furthermore, the participants in the experimental group showed a higher level of computational thinking skills, including cooperative learning, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. In summary, the progressive thinking training approach with flowcharts could not only improve the participants' computational thinking skills and programming self-efficacy, but also help them to achieve better academic outcomes.

Researchers have pointed out the important role of self-regulation in learning. The self-regulated learning (SRL) process consists of three stages (i.e. forethought, performance, and self-reflection), each of which could involve different strategies for achieving the aim of SRL. To enable researchers and teachers to have a whole picture of how each strategy could be applied, this study analyzed the 2010-2020 publications in seven SSCI journals of e-learning. In addition, the correlation between each SRL strategy and students' learning performances was analyzed. It was found that, in 58% of the studies, the potential strategies for individual SRL stages were generally ignored. In addition, 40% of the studies did not clearly state how SRL could be applied to practical applications. By referring to those SRL studies reporting the use of the strategies in each stage in specific application domains, it was found that goal setting and planning, which highly related to students' learning achievement, has been frequently discussed. Nevertheless, some strategies that highly correlated to students' cognitive performances and affect perceptions, such as environmental structuring, seeking information and rehearsing and memorizing, are often ignored. According to the findings, some suggestions are provided as a reference for researchers to conduct related research.

The flipped classroom approach has become one of the renowned instructional approaches in recent years. However, without proper educational tools to support students when they participate in classroom learning, their learning performances may not be as good as expected. In this study, a collective problem-solving promotion mechanism is proposed to enhance students' interaction and learning engagement in flipped classrooms using an interactive response system (IRS). A quasi-experimental design was adopted, and university students were recruited as the participants. The students in the experimental group applied the proposed approach, while those in the control group used the conventional flipped learning approach. The results show that the students in the collective problem-solving promotion-based flipped classroom not only had better learning performances and collective efficacy but also had higher level of knowledge construction and deeper interactions. The findings can be a reference for future teaching and research.

In this study, a peer assessment-based mobile learning approach was implemented and evaluated in a vocational design certification course. A quasi-experiment was conducted to explore the impact of the proposed approach on the learning achievements and motivations of the students with active and reflective styles. It was found that the students using the peer assessment-based mobile learning approach generally learned better than those using the conventional mobile learning approach. It was also found that there were interactive effects between learning approaches and learning styles on intrinsic motivation. The students with an active learning style outperformed those with a reflective style in intrinsic motivation when conducting the peer assessment-based mobile learning. Active learning style students also had higher extrinsic motivation than those with a reflective learning style when conducting mobile learning.

Training nursing students to make correct decisions when facing various nursing cases is an important and challenging objective. In the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) program for nursing students, the educational aim is not only nursing skills, but also critical thinking for making correct decisions and treatments. In this study, a contextual game-based flipped learning approach (GBFL) is implemented to improve nursing students' learning performances and promoting their positive perceptions in an intravenous injection course. Moreover, a quasi-experiment was implemented to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The subjects were 56 students from two classes of a nursing school. One class was assigned to the experimental group learning with the GBFL approach, while the other class was the control group learning with conventional flipped learning. From the experimental results, it was found that the students learning with the proposed approach showed better intravenous injection comprehension as well as higher learning achievement, learning motivation, learning attitudes, flow experience and critical thinking tendency than those learning with conventional flipped learning.

How to improve students' problem-solving skills and creativity and adapt them to the new situation of the twenty-first century is a rather important educational objective at present, and is expected to be for a long time to come. Project-based learning (PBL) is considered to be an approach that can develop students' higher-order thinking skills, while peer assessment is a strategy that helps students to interact and reflect. To improve the quality of peer assessment in PBL and to further promote learning by using the feedback of peer assessment, this study proposes an online progressive peer assessment (OPPA)-based PBL approach using constructivism as the theoretical framework for instructional design. The aim of the proposed approach is to organise progressive peer-assessment activities for students as they complete the project, thereby promoting high-quality peer evaluations and continuous reflective improvement of the project. To test the effect of the OPPA-based PBL approach, a quasi-experiment was carried out in an educational game development course with 49 university students from two classes. Students in the experimental group used the OPPA-based PBL approach to develop their game projects, while students in the control group used the conventional PBL approach to develop their game projects. The findings show that the OPPA-based PBL approach significantly improved students' learning achievement, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, problem-solving, and creativity awareness, while also reducing their anxiety levels compared to the conventional PBL approach. The results of this study provide a reference for improving project-based learning, and further demonstrate the importance and validity of constructivist learning theory.

Educators have indicated the need to foster students' ability to solve problems by acquiring up-to-date knowledge as well as promoting their competences for making decisions from diverse perspectives based on the acquired knowledge. Traditional courses mainly use lecture-based instruction without providing sufficient opportunities for students to practice and interact with the teacher; therefore, it is difficult to deliver such up-to-date knowledge via traditional instruction, not to mention fostering students' critical thinking. In this study, the Mobile technology-supported Decision, Reflection and Exercise (MDRE) model is proposed to address this problem. Moreover, a learning system is developed based on the proposed approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a university with a two-group pretest posttest design to assess participants' learning achievement, critical thinking and learning satisfaction. The participants were two classes of undergraduate students. One class with 37 students was the experimental group learning with the MDRE learning approach, whereas the other class with 37 students was the control group learning with the conventional technology-based learning approach. Analysis of covariance was performed to evaluate the effect of the intervention on the target outcomes. It was found that the experimental group showed better learning achievement, critical thinking and learning satisfaction than the control group. This implies that the MDRE approach has good potential in helping learners think from diverse perspectives and promoting their learning performance and engagement, which is important in higher education aimed at fostering students' competence of acquiring up-to-date knowledge for solving problems.

Review strategies after learning new knowledge are essential for students to consolidate the key points, understand the subject content, analyze aspects of the learning topics, and summarize the knowledge content of learning while mastering new knowledge. However, educators have found that students generally have difficulties seeking help when they encounter learning problems. This could significantly affect their after-class review performances. To cope with this problem, an after-class review approach with an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based chatbot is proposed in this study to provide students with immediate and quality feedback during the learning process. Moreover, a quasi-experiment was conducted to explore students' learning motivation, attitude, and academic performance when using the AI-based chatbot. Participants were two classes of students from a university in Taiwan. One class with 18 students was the experimental group and the other with 20 students was the control group. The experimental group used the AI-based chatbot in the after-class review, while the control group used the conventional after-class review approach. Research results showed that the application of AI-based chatbots in the review process of public health courses could improve students' academic performance, self-efficacy, learning attitude, and motivation. In other words, chatbots could help students become more active in the learning process. It is noted that after students asked questions, providing them with sufficient feedback during the review process could make them feel recognized and help to establish a relaxing and friendly interaction, thereby improving their academic performance.

Scholars believe that computational thinking is one of the essential competencies of the 21st century and computer programming courses have been recognized as a potential means of fostering students' computational thinking. In tradition instruction, PFCT (problem identification, flow definition, coding, and testing) is a commonly adopted procedure to guide students to learn and practice computer programming. However, without further guidance, students might focus on learning the syntax of computer programming language rather than the concept of solving problems. This study proposes a peer-assessment-supported PFCT (PA-PFCT) approach for boosting students' computer programming knowledge and computational thinking awareness. A quasi-experiment was conducted on a computer programming course in a high school to evaluate its influence on students' learning achievement, computational thinking awareness, learning motivation, and self-efficacy. An experimental group of 51 students learned with the proposed approach, while a control group of 49 students learned with the traditional PFCT (T-PFCT) approach. The experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly enhanced the students' computational thinking awareness, learning motivation, and self-efficacy, while not having significant impacts on their computer programming knowledge test scores.

Increasing learners' sense of presence is important in professional training, in particular, when aiming to foster their competences of making judgements and solving problems when facing real cases. However, in conventional training programmes, sometimes it is difficult to situate learners in real cases owing to several considerations, such as cost and potential danger. Scholars have indicated that the lack of opportunities to experience real contexts could seriously affect the training outcomes. To cope with this problem, the present study proposes a spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR)-based professional training (SVVR-PT) approach based on the attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction (ARCS) model to situate learners in an authentic training environment to experience the process of solving practical cases before facing real cases. To evaluate the effectiveness of the approach, a true experiment was conducted in a hospital by randomly assigning 70 nurses to an experimental group learning with the SVVR-PT approach and a control group learning with the conventional training approach. The experimental results show that the proposed approach outperformed the conventional approach in terms of promoting the learners' sense of presence and learning achievement as well as their problem-solving tendency and critical-thinking awareness. Moreover, the SVVR-PT learners also showed higher technology acceptance than the conventional training group.

Previous research has illustrated the potential of flipped learning for assisting teachers in designing meaningful activities to promote students' higher order thinking skills; however, several previous studies have challenged the effects of flipped learning on students' learning. One of the key problems is the lack of an effective learning approach or tools to engage students in the flipped learning activity. In this study, a concept mapping-based Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) approach was incorporated into flipped learning (called CPOE-FL) to enhance students' scientific learning. Furthermore, a three-group experiment was conducted to assess the effects of the three flipped learning models, comprising the CPOE-FL approach, the POE-FL (incorporating POE into flipped learning) approach, and the C-FL (conventional flipped learning) approach. The experimental results displayed that the CPOE-FL approach can benefit the learning achievements and self-efficacy of the students with respectively lower prior knowledge and lower initial self-efficacy, in comparison with the POE-FL and C-FL approaches. Both the CPOE-FL and POE-FL approaches promoted the students' inner learning motivation, while the CPOE-FL approach enhanced the students' critical thinking. This proposed approach could provide a good reference for researchers or school teachers intending to implement POE-based flipped learning in the future.

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature on flipped language classrooms from the perspectives of theoretical foundations, learning activities, tools, research topics and findings based on an analysis of 34 published articles. The results indicate that various research methods (e.g., tests, surveys, and interviews) were applied in the selected studies and different types of e-tools (e.g., video-watching tools, online learning platforms, online discussion tools, and video-making tools) were used in the flipped language classrooms. The findings also reveal that the flipped language classroom not only improved students' academic performance and cultivated their learning motivation but also developed their self-regulation, confidence, and higher-order thinking skills. Other research topics in the reviewed articles included the effects of external and learner factors on the flipped learning approach, students' readiness and technology acceptance, the flipped learning process, students' interactions, and teacher perceptions.

Many researchers have explored the impact of digital games on learning effects in different STEM subjects. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine the effect of digital game-based STEM education on the learning achievement of K-12 or higher education students. The analysis results of effect sizes from 33 studies (N = 3894) published from 2010 to 2020 showed that digital games contributed to a moderate overall effect size (ES = 0.667, 95% CI [0.520-0.814], p < 0.001) when compared with other instructional methods. Furthermore, the study explored multiple moderator variables and their potential impacts on learning outcomes such as control treatment, subject discipline, educational level, game type, gaming platform, and intervention duration. The findings suggest that digital games are a promising pedagogical method in STEM education that effectively improves learning gains. Additionally, the study concludes with three recommendations for future research and practices on digital games in STEM education.

The Analects of Confucius has been identified as an important and influential philosophy around the globe. However, in traditional instruction, it is difficult to express the spirit of this philosophy. Therefore, many students consider it as a big challenge to study the Analects of Confucius. To cope with this problem, in this study, an interactive e-book system has been developed based on the contextual learning model to interpret the Analects of Confucius in an interactive way. A quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The participants were 38 fifth graders from 2 classes in an elementary school located in northern Taiwan, who were divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group used an interactive e-book learning mode to learn the Analects of Confucius course while the control group used a conventional technology enhanced teaching mode. The results showed that adopting the interactive e-book teaching mode to study the Analects of Confucius in the elementary school course can promote students' learning achievement and motive. It was also found that the interactive e-book learning mode can trigger learners' deep motive, and hence promote their learning achievement.

It is widely recognized that flipped learning has great potential for enhancing students' conceptual understanding through the reversed arrangement of before-class learning activities and in-class settings. However, this approach also raises the challenge of students having to obtain the learning content by themselves, especially for abstract concepts such as fractions, where students frequently encounter problems in mathematics education. In this study, we proposed a gamified interactive e-book approach to supporting a flipped mathematics classroom. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experimental study was implemented in an elementary school mathematics course. There were three groups: the students who adopted the gamified interactive e-book in the mathematical flipped classroom (the GIEBFL group), the students who learned with conventional flipped learning (the CFL group), and those who learned with traditional instruction (the TI group). The results from a paper-and-pencil test indicated that the GIEBFL students significantly outperformed the CFL and TI students. In addition, the questionnaire of students' learning motivation showed that the GIEBFL students had better motivation than the CFL and TI students. Also, the GIEBFL students achieved significantly higher meta-cognition tendency than the TI students.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) refers to the cross-disciplinary learning design for engaging students in applying integrated knowledge to complete a project or solve a complex problem. It has been recognized by many scholars for its educational significance. However, STEM tasks are generally complex and challenging to students. Without proper supports, not only will students' participation decrease, but their knowledge level and internal capabilities will also hardly improve. To help students understand teachers' rating standards, increase the opportunity to observe and receive feedback on peers' work, and improve their cognitive level and higher order thinking such as critical thinking, this study proposes a peer assessment-facilitated STEM (PA-STEM) approach. At the same time, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a junior high school in Taiwan to verify the effectiveness of this approach. A total of four classes of 112 students participated in the experiment. The experimental group (two classes with 53 students) learning with the PA-STEM approach, and the control group (two classes with 59 students) used the conventional STEM approach. The experimental results showed that the students in the experimental group had higher learning achievement. Their collaboration tendency, critical thinking awareness, problem-solving tendency, and meta-cognition tendency were all significantly better than those of the students in the control group. Besides, peer assessment scores were highly correlated with teacher assessment scores, indicating that students were able to fully understand teachers' rating standards and provide accurate ratings of their peers' STEM work.

In language courses, it is important to foster students' systematic thinking and to develop their competence to express, appreciate, criticize and reflect, in particular in such courses as classical Chinese, which aim to develop students' cultural and literature knowledge. Problem posing is a promising strategy to achieve this objective. However, without sufficient supports, students could feel frustrated since problem posing is a challenging task, in particular for young students. In this study, a fill-in concept mapping-based problem-posing approach was proposed to address this problem. A learning system was developed based on the proposed approach and a quasi-experiment was conducted on an eighth-grade classical Chinese course to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the concept mapping-based problem-posing approach improved the students' learning achievement, critical thinking tendency and problem-posing quality. The interview results further show that the students perceived the approach as being effective from the perspectives of "Improving article comprehension," "Improving problem-posing performances," and "Boosting diverse thinking."

With the advancements in technology networks, mobile learning has been extensively applied in teaching contexts, enabling closer interaction between students and authentic environments. Previous studies have indicated that, when learning in real-world contexts, students need to interact with real learning targets and peers as well as the digital learning content; thus, effective learning strategies or tools are generally required for helping them organize knowledge and for promoting peer interactions. As a result, the present study developed a bi-directional peer-assessment-based concept mapping system, which not only engages students in assessing peers' concept maps, but also encourages them to evaluate or respond to peers' ratings and comments. To explore the effectiveness of this learning system, the study conducted an experiment in elementary science classes. A total of 101 fifth graders from four classes were recruited to participate in the study. Two classes were assigned to the experimental group and two to the control group. The experimental group adopted the bi-directional peer-assessment approach, while the control group adopted the conventional peer assessment approach for concept mapping. The results reveal that the bi-directional peer-assessment-based concept mapping system can not only increase students' learning achievement and the completeness of their concept mapping, but can also enhance their critical thinking tendency and the feedback quality of their peer assessment.

The present study aims to incorporate a group leadership promotion approach into collaborative learning tasks in the hope of developing students' creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we recruited 59 cross-professional students from a university in northern Taiwan, and divided them into an experimental group (6 sub-groups) and a control group (6 sub-groups). The experimental group students learned with the group leadership promotion approach, while the control group learned with conventional blended learning approach. The results show that the students could better develop their creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and learning achievement via the group leadership promotion approach. Lastly, sequential analysis of their behaviors indicated that students' interaction with group leadership in online collaborative learning can promote many more creative ideas and comments, enhance reaching a consensus and making conclusions, and finally, facilitate completion of the group learning tasks.

Extensive studies have been conducted to diagnose and predict students' academic performance by analyzing a large amount of data related to their learning behaviors in a blended learning environment. But there is a lack of research examining how individualized learning interventions could improve students' academic performance in such a learning context. In this study, a quasi-experiment was designed to investigate the effect of an individualized intervention approach on students' course performance and learning behaviors in a blended course. Forty-nine Chinese tertiary students undertaking the course were randomly assigned into two groups -- the experimental and control groups. During the course, the experimental group received individualized interventions, while the control group received undifferentiated interventions. The data about these participants' learning behaviors were collected over 15 weeks. The results indicated that, compared with the control group, the experimental group showed significantly better academic performance, a higher level of learning motivation, attitude and self-efficacy, more active learning behaviors, and fewer passive learning behaviors. The control group revealed similar online learning time, but significantly more resource utilization and forum access. It is concluded that personalized learning intervention can effectively improve students' learning behaviors, attitude, motivation, self-efficacy, and academic performance in a blended learning environment.

This research was conducted to determine the effectiveness of blended learning on academic achievements, motivation and learner autonomy. The scope of this research is the teaching of English through short stories. A quasi-experimental study was conducted among 116 upper secondary students and two different teaching pedagogies were utilised; a blended learning classroom for the experimental groups, and meanwhile conventional learning classroom for the control groups. The data for students' academic achievement were collected from a post-test questionnaire, whereas data for motivation and learner autonomy were collected through sets of questionnaires adapted from the previous literature. The differences between the two groups were then analysed using the independent t-test. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference in their academic achievements however, there were positive effects on both learner autonomy and students' motivation constructs in the blended learning compared to the conventional learning. The implication of this study is that blended learning is suitable to be implemented in secondary school English classes as long as there are sufficient monetary, equipment and technical supports.

Several previous studies have emphasized the importance of situating students in authentic learning or problem-solving contexts to enhance their learning performances. However, some challenges of situated learning have been stated, such as the lack of effective learning support or concrete objective design to improve students' learning engagement, problem-solving competences and their active thinking. In this study, a mobile technology-supported experiential learning system was developed to improve students' problem-solving competences as well as their learning performances, attitudes and collective efficacy. Moreover, an experiment was conducted on an environmental science course in an elementary school to compare the effects of this method with those of the conventional situated mobile learning approach on students' learning effectiveness. The experimental results display that the implemented approach can significantly enhance students' learning achievements, environmental attitudes and collective efficacy; furthermore, the students who learned with the implemented approach showed higher problem-solving competence than those who learned with the conventional situated mobile learning approach, implying a noticeable reference for conducting experiential learning activities in environmental science education. Furthermore, the promotion of students' active thinking in the mobile technology-supported experiential learning is discussed.

Flipped classrooms have been recognized as a potential approach that enables students to have flexible time to learn before the class as well as more opportunities to apply knowledge and to interact with peers and the teacher in the class. On the other hand, researchers have pointed out the challenge of engaging students in self-regulated learning and active participation in flipped classrooms. In this study, an Instant Response System (IRS)-facilitated collective issue-quest strategy is proposed for engaging students in active and self-regulated flipped learning. Moreover, a quasi-experimental design was conducted with undergraduate students in an internet marketing course in northern Taiwan to investigate the impacts of the proposed approach on the students' learning achievement, self-regulation, learning satisfaction and collective efficacy. The experimental results revealed that the learning achievement, collective efficacy and satisfaction of the students who learned with the proposed approach were significantly better than those of the students learning with the conventional flipped classroom approach. Moreover, in the "environment," "task strategies" and "help seeking" dimensions of self-regulation, the former had significantly higher ratings than the latter. This study contributes analysis results that highlight the benefits of implementing the IRS-facilitated collective issue-quest approach in the flipped classroom. The results of this research may provide a valuable reference for future studies and practice in the field.

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of applying a game-based learning approach to nutrition education. The quasi-experimental nonequivalent-control group design was adopted in a four-week learning activity. The participants included sixty-six third graders in two classes of an elementary school. One of the classes was assigned to be the experimental group and the other was the control group. The experimental group learned with computer games, while the control group learned with the traditional teaching approach. The result showed that the learning achievement of the students in the experimental group was significantly better than that of the students in the control group. Similar results were obtained in terms of the learning interest of the students. Moreover, most of the students revealed quite positive attitudes toward the use of the game-based learning approach in nutrition education. An in-depth analysis showed that there was no significant difference between genders in terms of nutrition knowledge and learning attitudes. (Contains 6 tables and 5 figures.)

Recently, researchers have demonstrated the benefits of technology-enhanced science inquiry activities. To improve students' self-regulation and assist them in controlling their own learning pace through inquiry activities, in this study, a self-regulated science inquiry approach was developed to assist them in organizing information from their real-world exploration. A quasi-experimental design was conducted in an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the students' performance using the proposed learning approach. One class assigned as the treatment group learned with the self-regulated science inquiry approach, while the other class assigned as the control group learned with the conventional science inquiry approach. The students' learning achievement, tendency of information help seeking, tendency of self-regulation, and self-efficacy were evaluated. The results of the study revealed that the self-regulated science inquiry approach improved the students' learning achievement, especially for those students with higher self-regulation. In addition, the students who conducted inquiry with the self-regulated learning strategy increased their tendency of information help seeking, self-efficacy, and several aspects of self-regulation, including time management, help seeking, and self-evaluation. Accordingly, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the self-regulated learning strategy, an approach with high learner control, in terms of improving students' learning achievement and their self-regulation.

With the rapid progress of technology, the popularity of tablet computers and the development of e-book applications have brought the use of e-books as a learning tool under the spotlight. In the meantime, the aim of school education lies not only in providing students with knowledge but also in encouraging them to construct knowledge actively. Consequently, in this study, an approach of integrating the guided peerfeedback strategy into e-book design was proposed. An experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course to explore its effectiveness in comparison with the conventional e-book development activity. It was expected that the guided peer-feedback approach could engage students in knowledge organizing and in-depth thinking while stimulating more innovative ideas. To assess the impacts of this approach, a quasi-experimental design method was adopted. The students were divided into two groups: the experimental group, in which the students learned with the guided peer-feedback strategy together with the e-book development approach, and the control group, in which the students learned with the conventional ebook development approach. The experimental results indicated that the integrated guided peer-feedback and e-book development strategy had significant impacts on the students' learning achievements and ebook project outcomes while reducing their cognitive load and increasing their innovative thinking tendency in the design process.

In this paper, an inquiry-based ubiquitous gaming approach was proposed. The objective of the study was to enhance students' performances in in-field learning activities. To show the advantages of the approach, an experiment was carried out to assess the effects of it on students' learning achievement, motivation, critical thinking, and problem solving. Furthermore, the students' behavioral patterns were investigated via content and sequential analysis methods. The experimental outcomes show that the approach promoted students' performances of learning achievement and intrinsic motivation; moreover, the students' perceptions of their problem solving and critical thinking were significantly promoted as well. The learning behavior analysis further show that the designated approach stimulated the participants to actively engage in field observation, comparison, and data searching in the context ware in-field learning activity.

The advancement of computer and communication technologies has enabled students to learn across various real-world contexts with supports from the learning system. In the meantime, researchers have emphasized the necessity of providing personalized learning guidance or support by considering individual students' status and needs in order to improve their learning performance. Based on this perspective, this study proposes a formative assessment-based approach for improving the learning performance of students in a personalized learning environment. An integrated learning diagnosis and formative assessment-based personalized web learning system was developed based on this approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in an elementary school mathematics course in Thailand. The experimental results showed that (1) the students learning with the proposed system revealed significantly better learning achievement and learning perceptions than those learning with the conventional learning system and (2) students' learning perceptions of the system had significant relationships with their learning achievement.

Researchers have pointed out that interactive e-books have rich content and interactive features which can promote students' learning interest. However, researchers have also indicated the need to integrate effective learning supports or tools to help students organize what they have learned so as to increase their learning performance, in particular, for abstract and complex learning content such as that in law courses. In this study, a concept-mapping-based interactive e-book learning mode was proposed. To understand the learning effects, a quasi-experimental design was used to compare the learning achievement and motivation of the students learning with the proposed approach (experimental group) and those learning with conventional interactive e-books (control group) in a junior high school fundamental law course. Meanwhile, the learning achievement and motivation of the students with different learning styles were also explored. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach significantly improved the students' learning achievement, especially for the active-style students; moreover, it was found that the lead-in of concept mapping did not affect the students' learning motivation. Factors that might affect the students' learning achievement and motivation with the concept-mapping-based interactive e-book approach are discussed accordingly.

Previous research has illustrated the importance of acquiring knowledge from authentic contexts; however, without full engagement, students' learning performance might not be as good as expected. In this study, a Team Competition-based Ubiquitous Gaming approach was proposed for improving students' learning effectiveness in authentic learning activities. An experiment on a natural science course was carried out in an elementary school to evaluate the effects of the approach on students' awareness of collaboration, communication and collective efficacy. Moreover, the students' learning behavioral patterns were explored by analyzing their interactive logs in the discussion forum. The experimental results indicated that, in addition to learning achievements, the proposed approach significantly enhanced the students' collective efficacy as well as their awareness of collaboration and communication; moreover, the students who learned with the proposed approach showed more effective behavioral patterns than those who learned with conventional team-based ubiquitous learning.

In this study, a mission synchronization-based peer-assistance approach is proposed to improve students' learning performance in digital game-based learning activities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment has been conducted in an elementary school natural science course to examine the participants' learning attitudes, collaboration skills, and learning achievements. From the experimental results, it was found that the educational game with the mission synchronization-based peer-assistance mechanism not only benefited the students in terms of promoting their learning achievements and attitudes, but also improved their collaboration skills via encouraging them to actively provide assistance to their peers during the gaming process. Finally, to further investigate the factors that might affect the performance of the mission synchronization-based peer-assistance approach, the students' learning behaviors are summarized and discussed.

Augmented reality (AR) has been recognized as a potential technology to help students link what they are observing in the real world to their prior knowledge. One of the most challenging issues of AR-based learning is the provision of effective strategy to help students focus on what they need to observe in the field. In this study, a competitive gaming approach is proposed to support AR-based learning activities conducted in real-world contexts. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school ecology course to explore the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison with the conventional AR-based mobile learning approach in field trips. The experimental results show that the AR-based gaming approach can improve not only students' learning attitudes, but also their learning performance on the field trip. Accordingly, discussions and some suggestions for future work are provided.

In this study, a problem-posing strategy is proposed for supporting collaborative mobile learning activities. Accordingly, a mobile learning environment has been developed, and an experiment on a local culture course has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Three classes of an elementary school in southern Taiwan participated in the experiment. One class was the experimental group who learned with the problem-posing-based mobile learning approach, while the other two classes were the control groups who learned with the conventional mobile learning approach and the traditional problem-posing approach, respectively. The experimental results show that the new approach not only improved the students' learning achievement, but also promoted their local culture identity and group learning self-efficacy.

In this study, a spreadsheet-based visualized Mindtool was developed for improving students' learning performance when finding relationships between numerical variables by engaging them in reasoning and decision-making activities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on the "phenomena of climate on earth" unit of an elementary school geography course. The experimental results showed that the spreadsheet-based visualized Mindtool significantly benefited the students in terms of improving their learning achievement and promoting their learning attitudes and satisfaction. Moreover, the cognitive load of the students was significantly decreased, indicating the effectiveness of this approach in helping students comprehend, learn content and organize their knowledge. To further investigate the learning behaviors of high-achievement and low-achievement students in using the spreadsheet-based Mindtool, a learning pattern analysis was conducted by coding the students' behaviors recorded on video.

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is an effective approach for promoting active learning. When inquiry-based learning is incorporated into instruction, teachers provide guiding questions for students to actively explore the required knowledge in order to solve the problems. Although the World Wide Web (WWW) is a rich knowledge resource for students to explore using search engines, it is hard for students to filter out required knowledge from the unorganized web pages and the huge number of search results. In this paper, an inquiry-based learning support system with two advanced knowledge exploration modules, namely the Q&A module and the Segmented Supplemental Material (SSM) module, is proposed and developed to assist students' inquiry-based learning. This study also evaluates the effects of the proposed system on students' learning achievement and learning efficiency with the various supports provided by the proposed system. Experiments were undertaken on a "Computer Science" course for first year undergraduate students. The experimental results show that with the support of the two advanced modules, both the students' learning achievement and their learning efficiency were enhanced.

In the era of computer and communication technologies, fostering students' high-level thinking abilities has become an important educational objective. Engaging students in web information searching to answer a series of questions related to a target issue has been recognized as a helpful approach for promoting students' thinking processes. In this study, a contextual learning approach is employed in web information searching activities to improve students' learning achievement, attitudes and critical thinking ability. The participants were divided into an experimental group, which was guided to use Internet resources to complete problem-based learning tasks with the contextual learning approach, and a control group, which learned with the conventional web information searching approach that situated students in a pure web information searching environment to answer questions for the issue to be investigated. From the experimental results, it was found that the experimental group exhibited significantly better learning attitudes, learning achievement, and better critical thinking than the control group, suggesting the effectiveness of the integrated contextual and web information searching approach in terms of helping students use Internet resources to investigate the target issue in depth.

In this study, a peer assessment-based game development approach is proposed for improving students' learning achievements, motivations and problem-solving skills. An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a science course at an elementary school. A total of 167 sixth graders participated in the experiment, 82 of whom were assigned to the experimental group and learned with the peer assessment-based game development approach, while 85 students were in the control group and learned with the conventional game development approach. From the empirical results, it was found that the proposed approach could effectively promote students' learning achievement, learning motivation, problem-solving skills, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational computer games. Moreover, it was found from the open-ended questions that most of the students perceived peer assessment-based game development as an effective learning strategy that helped them improve their deep learning status in terms of "in-depth thinking," "creativity," and "motivation."

Fostering the listening comprehension of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners has been recognized as an important and challenging issue. Videos have been used as one of the English listening learning resources; however, without effective learning supports, EFL students are likely to encounter difficulties in comprehending the video content, leading to frustration and reducing learning interest. In this study, a learning system with an automatic caption filtering and partial hiding mechanism was developed to improve the English listening comprehension of EFL students. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on students' learning achievements and perceptions. The participants were 76 freshmen from two classes of a non-language-related department of a university. Each class contained 38 students. The two classes of students were situated in the proposed learning context and the conventional technology-enhanced learning context with a counterbalanced experimental design. The experimental results verified that the proposed caption filtering approach effectively improved the listening comprehension of the students in comparison with the conventional approach which provides full captions and an e-dictionary. Moreover, from the data collected by the eye movement tracking device, it was found that more than 76% of the students relied on the captions during the learning activity, reflecting the importance of developing effective caption filtering mechanisms for supporting EFL learners.

Scholars have identified that learning in an authentic environment with quality contextual and procedural supports can engage students in thorough observations and knowledge construction. Moreover, the target is that students are able to experience and make sense of all of the learning activities in the real-world environment with meaningful supports, such that their learning motivation can be promoted, knowledge can be sensibly constructed, and skills can be fully developed. To develop potential tutoring strategies and learning activity models using mobile, wireless, and sensing information and communication technologies (ICT) in a real-world learning environment, a four-year national e-learning research project entitled "Mindtool-Assisted In-field Learning (MAIL)" has been funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan since 2008 in an effort to lead the development and innovation of Learning Technology. The integrated project aimed to develop Mindtool-assisted knowledge construction models, assessment models, guidance models, and reflection strategies for cutting-edge context-aware ubiquitous learning. Moreover, a series of learning activities has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed learning strategies and models. Each year, more than 1,500 students have participated in the in-field learning activities with the designed approaches. Based on the results of a series of experiments, it was found that the students' learning performance as well as their in-field inquiry ability was significantly improved, showing the effectiveness of the Mindtool-assisted ubiquitous learning approach and the success of the MAIL project. In this paper, the background, objectives, theoretical foundations, systems, research issues, applications, and findings of the MAIL project are presented. Finally, the scaling-up plan for applying these research-proven learning models to all levels of educational settings in Taiwan is also addressed.

In this study, an augmented reality-based mobile learning system is proposed for conducting inquiry-based learning activities. An experiment has been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of learning achievements and motivations. The subjects were 57 fourth graders from two classes taught by the same teacher in an elementary school in northern Taiwan. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach is able to improve the students' learning achievements. Moreover, it was found that the students who learned with the augmented reality-based mobile learning approach showed significantly higher motivations in the attention, confidence, and relevance dimensions than those who learned with the conventional inquiry-based mobile learning approach.

Personal computer assembly courses have been recognized as being essential in helping students understand computer structure as well as the functionality of each computer component. In this study, a context-aware ubiquitous learning approach is proposed for providing instant assistance to individual students in the learning activity of a computer-assembly course. In addition to comparing the learning achievements and learning satisfaction of the students who learned with context-aware ubiquitous learning and conventional technology-enhanced instruction, the computer-assembling performance, cognitive load, learning perceptions, as well as the learning attitudes of the students are also discussed. It was found that those students utilizing context-aware ubiquitous learning achieved better effects than those with conventional technology-enhanced learning. Moreover, with context-aware ubiquitous learning, the field-independent students presented higher acceptance of cognitive load, and more positive learning experience, learning perceptions, learning satisfaction, and learning attitudes than the field-dependent students.

In this study, a collaborative game-based learning environment is developed by integrating a grid-based Mindtool to facilitate the students to share and organize what they have learned during the game-playing process. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment has been conducted in an elementary school natural science course to examine the students' performance in terms of their learning attitudes, learning motivation, self-efficacy and learning achievements. From the experimental results, it is found that the Mindtool-integrated collaborative educational game not only benefits the students in promoting their learning attitudes and learning motivation, but also improves their learning achievement and self-efficacy owing to the provision of the knowledge organizing and sharing facility embedded in the collaborative gaming environment. (Contains 3 figures and 5 tables.)

In this paper, an online game was developed in the form of a competitive board game for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. The participants of the game determined their move by throwing a dice. Each location of the game board corresponds to a gaming task, which could be a web-based information-searching question or a mini-game; the former was used to guide the participants to search for information to answer a series of questions related to the target learning issue, while the latter was used to provide supplementary materials during the gaming process. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach not only significantly promoted the flow experience, learning attitudes, learning interest and technology acceptance degree of the students, but also improved their learning achievements in the web-based problem-solving activity. (Contains 6 figures and 7 tables.)

The advancement of mobile and wireless communication technologies has encouraged an increasing number of studies concerning mobile learning, in which students are able to learn via mobile devices without being limited by space and time; in particular, the students can be situated in a real-world scenario associated with the learning content. Although such an approach seems interesting to the students, researchers have emphasized the need for well-designed learning support in order to improve the students' learning achievements. Therefore, it has become an important issue to develop methodologies or tools to assist the students to learn in a mobile learning environment. Based on this perspective, this study proposes a formative assessment-based approach for improving the learning achievements of students in a mobile learning environment. A mobile learning environment has been developed based on this approach, and an experiment on a local culture course has been conducted in southern Taiwan to evaluate its effectiveness. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only promotes the students' learning interest and attitude, but also improves their learning achievement. (Contains 4 tables and 5 figures.)