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This study examines how students’ situational interest changes across different segments of peer reading activities and identifies the relationship with personal traits like the students reading sk...

This study investigates the possibility of utilizing online learning data to design face-to-face activities in a flipped classroom. We focus on heterogeneous group formation for effective collaborative learning. Fifty-three undergraduate students (18 males, 35 females) participated in this study, and 8 students (3 males, 5 females) among them joined post-study interviews. For this study, a total of 6 student characteristics were used: three demographic characteristics obtained from a simple survey and three academic characteristics captured from online learning data. We define three demographic group heterogeneity variables and three academic group heterogeneity variables, where each variable is calculated using the corresponding student characteristic. In this way, each heterogeneity variables represents a degree of diversity within the group. Then, a two-stage hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify the significant group heterogeneity variables that influence face-to-face group achievement. The results show that the academic group heterogeneity variables, which were derived from the online learning data, accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in the group achievement when the demographic group heterogeneity variables were controlled. The interviews also reveal that the academic group heterogeneity indeed affected group interaction and learning outcome. These findings highlight that online learning data can be utilized to obtain relevant information for effective face-to-face activity design in a flipped classroom. Based on the results, we discuss the advantages of this data utilization approach and other implications for face-to-face activity design.

In this article, we aim to provide a developmental approach to understanding adult students’ learning experiences of undertaking university-level study to completion at an open university, by employing a notion of “becoming”. With the rapid growth of a number of online course offerings, there are an increasing number of adult learners entering or returning to universities. Despite the growing number of non-traditional adult students in online higher education, little is known about the dynamic processes of adult distance learning, through which adult students struggle to develop their learning ability, to balance their life and study, and to become self-regulated learners – ultimately competent selves and lifelong learners. Therefore, this article describes ten adult students’ learning experiences from their enrolment in a distance programme to their completion of the programme many years later and deconstructs common assumptions of adult distance learners: namely, that they are a homogenous group with intrinsic and static characteristics that spring from their adultness or matureness.

This study utilized multiple data sources to examine the beliefs about learning and teaching physics and the instructional practices of five beginning teachers and seven experienced teachers from Singapore. Our study was implemented in the unique context of teachers teaching the topic of electricity to students grouped according to academic abilities. The topic of electricity is one of the most difficult physics topics for students to understand and for teachers to teach. It was found that the experienced teachers, compared to the beginning teachers, tended to have beliefs about teaching and learning physics that are closer to constructivist views. The majority of the teachers, particularly the beginning teachers, espoused beliefs about learning physics that were incongruent with their beliefs about teaching physics. Although transmission-oriented and teacher-directed practices dominated the classroom lessons of both groups of teachers, more elements of constructivist instruction were found in the classroom lessons of the experienced teachers. It was also found that the classroom practices of the teachers, especially those in their inductive years of teaching, were more aligned with their beliefs about learning physics than their beliefs about teaching physics.

This study investigates the feasibility of detecting low-achieving groups during face-to-face computer-supported collaborative learning in real-time. We collected in-class online activity data that records students' learning behaviors during face-to-face classes, and built prediction models that identify the at-risk groups at every minute during a class. A total of 88 pre-service teachers (56 female, 32 male) were recruited and assigned to 22 collaborative learning groups. The groups participated in two face-to-face collaborative argumentation classes that took place once a week over two consecutive weeks. The participants used online collaboration software, Trello, that allowed in-class online activity data collection during the classes. Ten group activity features were extracted from the data in three categories: participation, interaction, and quality of argumentation. Random forest algorithm was used to build the prediction models based on the group activity features. The results show that the models can detect the low-achieving groups with high accuracy even just a few minutes after the class begins. As the class progressed, the accuracy was improved. Additionally, the model identified the important group activity features that contributed to the group achievement in each phase of class. The results indicate that prediction models using in-class activity data can help instructors accurately identify at-risk groups in real-time and provide appropriate instructional support. An early warning system should be beneficial as well.

Virtual worlds have affordances to enhance collaborative learning in authentic contexts. Despite the potential of collaborative learning with a virtual world, few studies investigated whether it is more effective in student achievements than teacher-directed instruction. This study investigated the effectiveness of collaborative problem solving and collaborative observation using virtual worlds. Secondary school students ( n = 101) participated in the study as part of their coursework in three geography classes. This study found that collaborative problem solving and observation were more effective in facilitating and maintaining intrinsic motivation than teacher-directed instruction. Students in the collaborative observation condition outperformed those in the other conditions when it came to knowledge gains. Lastly, collaborative problem solving and observation were more beneficial for group performance than teacher-directed instruction. These results were discussed in regard to the impacts of interactive learning and the cognitive load of using virtual worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although research from the Asia-Pacific region has been increasing, much is unknown about research trends, authors, and institutions in the region, especially in relation to learning and instruction. It is important to have an understanding of current research to identify its strengths and weaknesses and to chart future research directions. It is also useful to identify prominent and productive authors and institutions in the Asia-Pacific to enhance international and regional collaboration between researchers. Twelve top international journals from 2002 to 2011 in the fields of educational psychology, educational technology, and learning sciences were examined. New bibliometric measures, such as the q 2 index, as well as co-authorship network analysis, and cluster analysis methods were utilized to provide insights into Asia-Pacific authors and institutions in the field of learning and instruction research.

The current study investigated how people learn design principles from examples of PowerPoint presentation slides through self-explanation and co-explanation. This study also explored a strategy to improve the effectiveness of co-explanation by integrating it with a collaborative design activity. Preservice teachers (n = 120) studied the design examples of PowerPoint presentation slides in four research conditions: co-explanation with design, co-explanation, self-explanation, and no prompt (control). Pairs of learners in the co-explanation condition explained fewer strengths and weaknesses of the design examples than nominal pairs in the self-explanation condition. Moreover, co-explanation was not more effective than self-explanation when it came to individual learning outcomes. In contrast, pairs in the co-explanation with design condition were more actively engaged in co-explaining design examples than pairs in the co-explanation condition. This study shows that co-explanation with design is more beneficial for constructing and sharing knowledge of design principles than co-explanation only. This study discussed a trade-off between constructive/interactive learning effects and transactional activity costs in co-explaining design examples.

Understanding scientific phenomena requires comprehension and application of the underlying causal relationships that describe those phenomena (Carey 2002). The current study examined the roles of self-explanation and meta-level feedback for understanding causal relationships described in a causal diagram. In this study, 63 Korean high-school students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: instructional explanation, self-explanation, and meta-level feedback. Results showed that self-explaining a causal diagram was as effective as studying instructional explanations. Furthermore, the effectiveness of self-explaining a causal diagram was enhanced by meta-level feedback that prompted students to reflect on their own explanations by comparing them with instructional explanations. We identified three main difficulties that high-school students experienced when explaining a causal diagram to themselves: one-sided explanation, erroneous explanation, and the lack of inference. Implications of the study were discussed in regard to the improvement of self-explanation and the design of causal diagrams in science education.

In line with the goal of developing learners for the twenty-first century, which is characterized by the emergence of knowledge-based economies, educators have strived to cultivate students’ competence in authentic problem solving. This book documents innovative practices of authentic problem solving and learning in Singapore and other countries with regard to three main approaches: authentic problem, authentic practice, and authentic participation. Concerning authentic problems, this book introduces the role and design of authentic problems and problem-based learning environments. The discussions on authentic practice emphasize authentic experience, tool-mediated action, and culture more than realistic problems themselves. The last key theme in the book, authentic participation, elucidates informal learning out of school and learners’ interaction with practitioners in a community of practice. Throughout this book, the dynamic interaction and tensions of authentic problems, learners, tools, and learning environments are discussed along with successful cases of authentic learning in K-12 school, higher education, and professional development. Blending contributions from Singapore-based and international authors, this book provides useful information, new insights, successful stories, and practical guides to school leaders, parents, teachers, and researchers who are willing to develop authentic learning environments for twenty-first century learners.