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Most conventional information literacy classes apply direct instruction where students focus on memorizing target knowledge. As this approach promotes little active learning, while digital storytelling could effectively involve students, we proposed a digital storytelling approach to enhancing students' information literacy development in this study. In this research, we applied student-centered digital storytelling to enhance learners' development of information literacy. As the literature indicates that appropriate scaffolding is essential for effective digital storytelling, and learners need guidance on how to produce digital stories with in-depth content to achieve satisfactory learning outcomes, we integrated peer assessment (PA) into digital storytelling to guide learners to reflect on and critique their videos based on assessment rubrics and peer feedback, and then further improve their videos. We also conducted a quasi-experiment with two groups of elementary students to test the effectiveness of this strategy. The target knowledge was copyright and public license issues. The experimental group learned the content through the PA-enhanced digital storytelling approach, and the control group through the teacher feedback-enhanced approach. The results showed that the PA-enhanced approach to digital storytelling significantly outperformed the teacher feedback-enhanced approach in promoting students' learning of information literacy, self-efficacy, and critical thinking abilities; on the other hand, no significant differences existed between the two groups in terms of their learning 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.

In the past decades, collaborative game-based learning has been used to facilitate students' learning in authentic learning contexts. Although several previous studies have reported the potential of this approach for students' learning performance and motivation, unequal participation could negatively influence the learning effectiveness of collaborative learning. To this end, this study developed a mandatory contribution-based collaborative gaming approach (MCCG) to enhance the competencies for conducting practical solutions related to environmental issues during a cross-field learning activity between a school and a museum. MCCG and a conventional collaborative gaming approach (CCG) were implemented to investigate the effects of individual contributions on collaborative learning. Both individual learning achievements and collaborative learning outcomes were assessed. The results showed that game-based collaboration supports can support competency-based education to enhance students' competencies, such as problem-solving and critical thinking competencies. Those students who learned with the mandatory contribution approach had better collaborative learning outcomes.

One main objective of art education is to foster students' art evaluation as well as their creative thinking ability. Engaging students in artwork sharing and peer feedback is a frequently adopted approach in school settings. However, most students have difficulties providing constructive comments during the peer-feedback process. To address this issue, a mobile-based progressive peer feedback approach was proposed to facilitate primary school students' creative thinking performance, metacognitive awareness, and learning attitude. A quasi-experiment was implemented with two intact classes in a primary school in northern Taiwan to investigate the effect of the proposed approach. One class was assigned to be the experimental group (n = 20) which learned with the proposed progressive peer-feedback scaffolding approach, and the other was the control group (n = 20) which learned with the conventional feedback approach. The findings indicated that the proposed progressive peer feedback approach had a positive effect on the primary school students' creative art thinking. The experimental group students' metacognitive awareness was also significantly enhanced. Besides, the students from the experimental group considered that the proposed progressive peer feedback approach was beneficial to helping them critically reflect on their drawings, and facilitated their understanding of how to improve the integrity of their drawings.

Pottery making in technology education aims to foster students' practical and creative ability. In a typical pottery making class, students receive the teacher's instruction on the fundamental techniques used in pottery making and have opportunities to practice. It is meaningful to construct an observation-doing-reflection process for students in a pottery making class to promote their learning experience and performance. Therefore, in this study, a Virtual Reality (VR)-based pottery making approach was applied to technology education in a junior high school to examine its effects on students' creativity and learning engagement. A total of 97 seventh graders from three classes participated in pottery making in class. One class of 34 students was assigned to be the experimental group learning with the VR-based approach, while the other two classes were assigned to be the control groups, with 30 students learning with the paper-and-pencil approach and 33 students with the clay-based approach. The results showed that the students learning with the VR-based approach were not only more creative in terms of their products, but also had higher cognitive engagement than those in the control groups. Moreover, the VR-based approach improved the students' behavioral, emotional and social engagement compared to the paper-and-pencil approach.

Writing is a recording process involving complex dynamic behaviours, which is closely connected with authentic contexts. A free authentic context can form a link with students' life experience and their prior knowledge, so that students' deep writing skills can be stimulated. However, in traditional writing activities, the lack of authentic experience is an important reason for students' poor writing achievements and low behavioural engagement. To address this problem, the current study used a spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR)-supported Chinese composition writing approach, which can provide authentic contexts to support students' deep writing. An SVVR experiential learning model was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted in a primary school to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A total of 59 fourth-grade students from China were recruited and were randomly divided into the experimental group, which adopted the SVVR-supported learning approach, and the control group, which adopted the non-SVVR-supported learning approach. The results show that the proposed approach can promote students' transition of learning behavioural engagement from medium to high, as well as the development of deep writing skills. It was found that students learning with the SVVR approach who acquired better deep writing skills tended to demonstrate better writing performance in relation to linguistic expressiveness and creative thinking than the students learning with the non-SVVR approach.

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.

Educational games have been increasingly used to improve students' computational thinking. However, most existing games have focused on the theoretical knowledge of computational thinking, ignoring the development of computational thinking skills. Moreover, there is a lack of integration of adaptivity into educational computer games for computational thinking, which is crucial to addressing individual needs in developing computational thinking skills. In this study, we present an adaptive educational computer game, called AutoThinking, for developing students' computational thinking skills in addition to their conceptual knowledge. To evaluate the effects of the game, we conducted an experimental study with 79 elementary school students in Estonia, where the experimental group learned with AutoThinking, while the control group used a traditional technology-enhanced learning approach. Our findings show that learning with the adaptive educational computer game significantly improved students' computational thinking related to both conceptual knowledge and skills. Moreover, students using the adaptive educational computer game showed a significantly higher level of interest, satisfaction, flow state, and technology acceptance in learning computational thinking. Implications of the findings are also discussed.

Scholars have suggested that flipped learning can be enhanced by designing effective in-class learning activities to improve students' higher order thinking skills. Problem posing has been recognized as such a learning strategy that has great potential for improving students' higher order thinking skills. However, it has been reported as a challenging task for most students. Research evidence has indicated the potential of engaging students in group learning with step-by-step hints when conducting problem-posing activities. Therefore, this study proposed a multilevel concept mapping-based problem-posing strategy to assist students in completing the problem-posing tasks in flipped learning. To understand the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, a flipped learning system was developed and adopted in the science class of an elementary school. Seventy-five fifth graders from three classes were divided into experimental group A, experimental Group B and a control group. Students in Group A used the concept map-guided problem-posing strategy for flipped learning (CMPP-FL), students in Group B used the problem-posing strategy-based flipped learning, while students in the control group used the conventional flipped learning strategy. The results showed that the CMPP-FL was effective in terms of improving students' learning performance, especially for students with higher levels of critical thinking tendency.

Due to the lack of life experience and situational experience, it is difficult to arouse pupils' inner motivation and interest in writing. Therefore, the early stage of Chinese writing may be a challenge for Chinese pupils. In order to solve this problem, a spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) experience learning system was developed to help pupils improve their writing performance and interest. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was carried out in a primary school in Zhejiang province, China. First, a writing pretest was administered in two grade 4 classes. The researchers then randomly selected 40 pupils of about 10 years old with similar writing abilities, and assigned them to an experimental group, which used the SVVR learning method, and a control group, which used the traditional learning method. The researchers observed and recorded the pupils' writing process and then, interviewed them. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the comprehensive writing performance of the two groups (F = 6.272; p = 0.017 < 0.05). The mean of the experimental group (Mean = 73.85) was higher than that of the control group (Mean = 70.00). Moreover, there were significant differences between the two groups in terms of the thematic coherence, structural integrity and linguistic expressiveness of their writing performance. However, there was no significant difference in the achievement of creative thinking. In the experimental group, different levels of learning behavior engagement could affect the structural integrity and language expression of writing achievements, and the degree of writing learning behavior engagement was highly correlated with reading time. Through the interviews, it was found that the pupils in the experimental group were more satisfied with the SVVR learning method than the control group pupils were with the traditional learning method.

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.

In recent years, most studies on flipped classrooms or flipped learning have focused on learners' motivation, academic achievement and teachers' and students' perceptions of the flipped classroom. Little research has involved interactions in the flipped classroom. This study aims to show that in-class collaborative learning in the flipped classroom can not only be conceived as a collective activity consisting of discrete actions, but also as a systematic activity. From the activity-theoretical perspective, contradictions were found between components of an activity such as subject, tools, rules, community, division of labor, object and outcome. This study conducted a pre-experiment, selecting one lesson of the seventh-grade Information Technology Course as the learning content, conducted in a flipped classroom. Three triads with different compositions were specifically observed by recording their interactions. More second-level contradictions existed between subject and tools, and division of labor within the low-level triad than within the other two triads, and more first-level contradictions also occurred within the low-level triad than within the other two triads. Most second-level contradictions within the high-level triad were resolved by self-regulation of cognition. Instead, most second-level contradictions within the mixed-level triad were overcome by co-regulation or shared regulation of cognition. This study sheds light on how to effectively design and implement flipped learning, and provides a new approach for analyzing interactions in the classroom.

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.

The capability of reading comprehension is one of the essential skills for learning different topics, and has been recognized as a challenging objective in the Chinese curriculum. In this study, a concept mapping-based summarization strategy was incorporated into flipped learning to improve students' reading comprehension. The participants of the study were 45 fifth graders from two Mandarin Chinese classes at an elementary school in Taiwan. None of the students had previous flipped learning experience. A pretest and posttest of reading comprehension as well as pre- and post-questionnaires for measuring the students' reading motivation, self-efficacy, and cognitive load were conducted. The experimental results show that the proposed approach improved the students' summarization skills, while the impact of the approach on students' reading comprehension was not significant. Moreover, reading comprehension and self-efficacy showed a positive correlation, and self-efficacy was positively correlated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Consequently, it is concluded that employing concept mapping with the summarization strategy in flipped learning and students' summarization ability are directly related, but there may be an indirect relationship with reading comprehension.

One form of educational inequality is the disparity that exists between urban and rural settings. Equal distribution of quality education is a challenge for developing countries due to the unavailability of resources. Various approaches to equal distribution are distance learning, telecast learning and e-learning; however, these approaches cannot achieve the desired objectives due to their limitations. This research aimed to investigate the interesting question of whether mobile technology can bring urban and rural settings closer together. A mobile application for learning Urdu grammar was designed to measure the learning gains of fourth-grade students at two different schools from urban and rural settings. A quantitative technique, the quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test method, was used to measure the effectiveness of the mobile application. The comparison of the students' performances at the urban and rural schools illustrated the role of mobile technology in mitigating the educational gap. The present study provides evidence that children from different social backgrounds may benefit equally from mobile technology.

Owing to the popularity of tablet computers and smart phones, e-books have become an important medium for both formal and informal learning. However, conventional e-books are mainly designed to provide information in the form of multimedia, implying that students spend most of their time memorizing and comprehending what they read from e-books, while seldom engaging in higher order thinking. In this study, a problem-posing framework is proposed for developing an interactive e-book for guiding students to observe and pose questions. An experiment on an elementary school natural science course was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The participants were 46 fourth-grade students. From the experimental results, it was found that the problem-posing-guiding interactive e-book can significantly improve the students' learning achievements, critical thinking tendency, and deep motive. It was also found that the proposed approach did not increase the students' cognitive load owing to the provision of proper supports during the problem-posing process, which has generally been identified as a challenging task.

Observation competence plays a fundamental role in outdoor scientific investigation. The computerized concept mapping technique as a Mindtool has shown the potential for enhancing meaningful learning in science education. The purposes of the present study are to develop a concept map integrated mobile learning design for ecology observation and to examine the implementation effect for elementary school children. Also, the difference in growth slopes between gifted and average students is investigated. Eighteen gifted students and thirty average students were included in this study. A computerized dynamic assessment system which combines a Computerized Ecology Observation Competence Assessment (CEOCA) and a concept map integrated ecology observation learning design were implemented. The results of the hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis reveal that the overall growth slope is significant ([mu] = 0.27, p less than 0.01). The effect size is 0.53. The growth slope of the gifted students is a little higher than that of the average students. However, the slope difference between ability groups is not significant. The results suggest that a well designed concept map integrated learning system demonstrates very promising potential for enhancing both the gifted and average students' mobile observation competence. The system developed in this study could be a useful resource for elementary school outdoor learning design. (Contains 4 figures and 7 tables.)

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.

In traditional teacher-centered mathematics instruction, students might show low learning motivation owing to the lack of applied contexts. Game-based learning has been recognized as a potential approach to addressing this issue; however, without proper alignment between the gaming and math-applied contexts, the benefits of game-based learning could be limited. Therefore, this study aims to develop a microworld-based educational game, which provides simulated contexts encouraging students to explore, discover, and solve practical problems using the mathematics knowledge gained in the class. A quasi-experimental design was implemented in the learning activity of the "Speedy World" unit in an elementary school mathematics course to examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A total of 107 sixth graders participated in the experiment. The experimental results showed that the students who learned with the microworld-based gaming approach had better learning achievement and motivation in the mathematics course than those who learned with the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. In addition, the students also showed that they highly accepted the microworld-based game for learning mathematics. The findings of this study provide good evidence for the importance and necessity of associating authentic applied contexts with gaming contexts in developing computer educational games for mathematics.

Augmented reality (AR) offers potential advantages for intensifying environmental context awareness and augmenting students' experiences in real-world environments by dynamically overlapping digital materials with a real-world environment. However, some challenges to AR learning environments have been described, such as participants' cognitive overload and the ways to provide assistance in constructing the presented learning materials. In this study, a mindtool-based AR learning system was developed, based on the repertory grid method and the contiguity principle of multimedia learning, for assisting students in constructing their knowledge in a natural science course. Furthermore, an experiment was carried out on an elementary school natural science course to compare the influences of this method with those of the conventional AR learning system on students' learning effectiveness. The experimental results show that the designated approach effectively promoted the students' learning achievements, and no significant difference existed between the mindtool-based AR learning system and the conventional AR learning system in terms of students' cognition load and satisfaction degree; moreover, both the experimental group and the control group perceived low cognition load during the learning activity and rated their own AR learning systems as being highly satisfactory.

Facilitating students' deep-strategy behaviors and positive learning performances of science inquiry is an important and challenging educational issue. In this study, a contextual science inquiry approach is proposed for developing a 3D experiential game to cope with this problem. To evaluate the impacts of the game on students' science learning approaches, learning achievements and problem-solving awareness as well as the learning behavioral patterns of the students with different learning achievements, a quasi-experiment was conducted in an elementary school geoscience course. The participants were two classes of sixth graders. One class was the experimental group who learned with the 3D experiential game, and the other was the control group who learned with the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. The experimental results showed that the students learning with the 3D experiential gaming system showed better learning achievements, problem-solving tendency, deep learning strategies, and deep learning motive than those who learned with the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. Moreover, the higher-achievement students showed more behavioral patterns of deep learning strategies than the lower-achievement students. The findings of this study provide a good reference for helping lower-achievement students improve their learning performance.

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.

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.

Flipped learning is a well-recognized learning mode that reverses the traditional in-class instruction arrangement by delivering learning content outside of the classroom and engaging students in more activities in class. However, it remains a challenge for students to comprehend the learning material by themselves, particularly when learning abstract concepts such as in mathematics. In this study, an interactive e-book approach is proposed to support flipped learning. It facilitates and bridges out-of-class and in-class learning by providing support for interactive learning contents presented on mobile devices. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experiment was conducted in an elementary school math course. The experimental group students learned with the interactive e-book approach in the flipped learning activity, while the control group students learned with the conventional video-based flipped learning approach. The experimental results indicated that the proposed approach not only promoted the students' self-efficacy for learning mathematics, but also improved their learning achievement; moreover, it was found that the approach benefited the lower self-efficacy more than the higher self-efficacy students. The learning record analysis further confirmed that the lower self-efficacy students spent more time reading the e-books before and in class than the higher self-efficacy students did.

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.

One of the important and challenging objectives of social studies courses is to promote students' affective domain exhibition, including learning interest, positive attitudes and local culture identity. In this paper, a location-aware mobile learning approach was proposed based on a competition strategy for conducting local cultural activities in the field. During the field trip, the learners were asked to learn in the mobile learning environment by throwing a dice to determine their moves using a tablet computer. Each move was related to a problem-based learning task associated with the corresponding real-world target at the specified location. To assess the effects of the peer competition-based mobile learning approach on students' affective domain exhibition, a quasi-experimental design was employed to conduct a learning activity in the social studies course of an elementary school. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed approach significantly improved the students' local culture identity, learning interest, and learning attitudes; moreover, it also decreased their cognitive load when guiding them to learn in the field trip.

In this study, an integrated gaming and multistage guiding approach was proposed for conducting in-field mobile learning activities. A mobile learning system was developed based on the proposed approach. To investigate the interaction between the gaming and guiding strategies on students' learning performance and motivation, a 2 × 2 experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. Four groups of students were situated in a field trip to learn with different mobile learning approaches (ie, gaming or nongaming) and guiding mechanisms (ie, multistage or single-stage). The experimental results showed that both the gaming and multistage guiding mechanisms proposed in this study significantly enhanced the students' learning achievements. Moreover, the interaction between the two showed that the lead-in of the gaming strategy could significantly improve the learning motivation of the students who learned with the multistage guiding mechanism; on the contrary, their learning motivation could be significantly decreased without the gaming approach, although the multistage guiding mechanism was effective. The findings imply that "gamification" could be a good approach for helping students accept learning support or tools provided in mobile learning scenarios.

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.

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.

Web-based problem-solving, a compound ability of critical thinking, creative thinking, reasoning thinking and information-searching abilities, has been recognised as an important competence for elementary school students. Some researchers have reported the possible correlations between problem-solving competence and information searching ability; however, few studies have proposed what factors might affect students' web-based problem-solving performance. In this study, a five-phase web-based learning approach is proposed; moreover, a web-based problem-solving model was developed to investigate the factors that might affect students' web-based problem-solving performance. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted by engaging 201 fifth- and sixth-graders from three elementary schools in a series of web-based problem-solving activities. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the antecedents affecting the students' web-based problem-solving performance. From the analysis results, it was found that task-technology fit could be the major factor affecting the students' intention to learn on the Web, as it highly affected their web-based problem-solving performance.

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."

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.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a ubiquitous problem-based learning system (UPBLS) on students' question-raising performance in field inquiry activities. An experiment was conducted on an elementary school natural science course. A total of 43 sixth and fifth grade elementary students divided into experienced and novice groups participated in the field observation activities with on-line discussion over a period of seven months to evaluate the changes in their questioning ability. Moreover, a rubric for evaluating the students' questioning ability was developed and validated. Supported by UPBLS, the students collected the required wetland ecology data in three wetland field observation activities. The experimental results show that the students' questioning abilities significantly improved during the learning process. Moreover, it was found that both the experienced and the novice students had similar progress trends, implying that the proposed approach is helpful for improving the questioning abilities of students with different levels of prior knowledge.

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.)

Educational computer games have been recognized as being a promising approach for motivating students to learn. Nevertheless, previous studies have shown that without proper learning strategies or supportive models, the learning achievement of students might not be as good as expected. In this study, a knowledge engineering approach is proposed for developing educational computer games to help students learn about the knowledge for differentiating a set of learning targets in an interesting and meaningful way. Based on the proposed approach, an educational computer game has been developed for an elementary school natural science course. The experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly improved the students' learning achievement as well as their learning attitude and motivation. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Learning styles are considered to be one of the factors that need to be taken into account in developing adaptive learning systems. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate if students have the ability to choose the best-fit e-learning systems or content presentation styles for themselves in terms of learning style perspective. In this paper, we aim to investigate these issues by using two versions of an educational game developed based on the sequential/global dimension of the learning style proposed by Felder and Silverman. The experimental results showed that the choices made by the students were not related to their cognitive process or learning style; instead, most students made their choices by intuition based on personal preferences. Moreover, the students who learned with learning style-fit versions showed significantly better learning achievement than those who learned with non-fit versions. Consequently, it is concluded that students preferring one game over another does not necessarily mean that they will learn better with that version, revealing the importance and necessity of developing adaptive learning systems based on learning styles.

Mobile learning has been recommended for motivating students on field trips; nevertheless, owing to the complexity and the richness of the learning resources from both the real-world and the digital-world environments, information overload remains one of the major concerns. Most mobile learning designs provide feedback only for multiple choice items to guide students' learning. The aim of this study was to develop a series of worksheets as scaffolding to support inquiry-based ecology observations in a mobile learning environment. Based on a three-layer worksheet framework, a mobile learning system with in-field scoring rubrics was developed to guide the students to sequentially focus on guided observations, independent observations, and extended inquiries. Well-designed worksheets, instant feedback and supplementary materials were provided to balance the students' learning pressure and task challenge in the species-rich field. The automated scoring data for constructed response tasks were analyzed to investigate the learning growth and students' learning characteristics. The results showed that the proposed approach was effective in improving the field observation performance of the students. Furthermore, nearly 70% of the students who learned with the proposed approach could pursue their own inquiries in the mobile learning environment, showing that the approach is promising.

This study investigates the effects of different display modes of video captions on mobile devices, including non-caption, full-caption, and target-word modes, on the English comprehension and vocabulary acquisition of fifth graders. During the one-month experiment, the status of the students' English listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition was evaluated on a weekly basis. From the experimental results, it was found that the learning achievement of the English target-word group was as good as that of the full-caption group in terms of vocabulary acquisition, while both groups outperformed the non-caption group. When the students' learning preferences were taken into consideration, the visual style students in both the English target-word group and the full-caption group showed significantly better learning effectiveness in terms of vocabulary acquisition than those in the control group. Furthermore, in terms of listening comprehension, the students in all three groups made remarkable progress.

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.)

In recent years, many researchers have been engaged in the development of educational computer games; however, previous studies have indicated that, without supportive models that take individual students' learning needs or difficulties into consideration, students might only show temporary interest during the learning process, and their learning performance is often not as good as expected. Learning styles have been recognized as being an important human factor affecting students' learning performance. Previous studies have shown that, by taking learning styles into account, learning systems can be of greater benefit to students owing to the provision of personalized learning content presentation that matches the information perceiving and processing styles of individuals. In this paper, a personalized game-based learning approach is proposed based on the sequential/global dimension of the learning style proposed by Felder and Silverman. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a role-playing game has been implemented based on the approach; moreover, an experiment has been conducted on an elementary school natural science course. From the experimental results, it is found that the personalized educational computer game not only promotes learning motivation, but also improves the learning achievements of the students.

Enhancing students' problem-solving abilities has been recognized as an important and challenging issue for technology-enhanced learning. Thus, previous research has attempted to address this issue by developing various mechanisms, among which a cognitive apprenticeship model can particularly enhance students' abilities. However, it is not clear whether such a mechanism is suitable for every learner. Thus, this study examines the effects of human factors on problem-solving effectiveness in the cognitive apprenticeship model. Among various human factors, this study focuses on cognitive styles, with an emphasis on Witken's Field Dependence. The results indicate that Field Dependent learners can get great benefits from the cognitive apprenticeship model via collaborative learning. Implications for how to accommodate the needs of different cognitive style groups are discussed. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Although project-based learning is a well-known and widely used instructional strategy, it remains a challenging issue to effectively apply this approach to practical settings for improving the learning performance of students. In this study, a project-based digital storytelling approach is proposed to cope with this problem. With a quasi-experiment, the proposed approach has been applied to a learning activity of a science course in an elementary school. A total of 117 Grade 5 students in an elementary school in southern Taiwan were assigned to an experimental group (N = 60) and a control group (N = 57) to compare the performance of the approach with that of conventional project-based learning. A web-based information-searching system, Meta-Analyzer, was used to enable the students to collect data on the Internet based on the questions raised by the teachers, and Microsoft's Photo Story was used to help the experimental group develop movies for storytelling based on the collected data. Moreover, several measuring tools, including the science learning motivation scale, the problem-solving competence scale and the science achievement test, were used to collect feedback as well as evaluate the learning performance of the students. The experimental results show that the project-based learning with digital storytelling could effectively enhance the students' science learning motivation, problem-solving competence, and learning achievement. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

This study aims to develop an electronic library-based learning environment to support teachers in developing web-based problem-solving activities and analyzing the online problem-solving behaviors of students. Two experiments were performed in this study. In study 1, an experiment on 103 elementary and high school teachers (the learning activity designers) has been conducted to understand their views toward an electronic library-based learning environment. The results showed that with this innovative approach, electronic libraries not only have the potential to support traditional in-class learning, but also can assist teachers in developing learning activities for training students in web-based problem-solving abilities. Moreover, teachers of different ages and backgrounds all readily accepted the new approach, in particular, the older and more experienced teachers showed even higher willingness to use the system than the younger and less experienced teachers. In study 2, a quasi-experiment on 62 elementary school students (experimental group with 31 students and control group with 31 students) has been undertaken on a natural science course for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Experimental results showed that this innovative approach can improve the students' learning achievements and attitudes in comparisons with the conventional web-based learning approach. (Contains 6 tables and 8 figures.)