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AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the efficacy of utilizing large language models (LLMs) to enhance self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing. An LLM-supported Cognitive Academic Language Learning Model (CALLA-LLM) was developed and examined for its potential to improve elementary students’ EFL writing performance, SRL strategy use, and writing motivation. In a randomized controlled trial, 65 elementary school students were divided into an experimental group receiving CALLA-LLM instruction and a control group receiving traditional CALLA instruction. Both groups learned SRL strategies over 5 weeks, with data collected pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at a one-month follow-up. Results showed that the CALLA-LLM group made significant improvements in writing performance, SRL strategy use, and writing motivation, maintained most of the gains at follow-up, and significantly outperformed the control group. Findings provide empirical evidence for the efficacy of the CALLA-LLM model in enhancing EFL writing strategy instruction, lending support for integrating AI technologies such as LLMs into English language teaching. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of the “Humans in the Loop” approach, which emphasizes the essential role of human educators in AI-assisted language instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Painting is the foundational expression across all art forms and is one of the key creative practices for fostering students' aesthetic ability and creativity within fine arts courses. Collaborative painting in the form of socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) can be recognized as an effective strategy for enhancing creativity in both individual and group work. However, the absence of contextual experiences and collaborative spaces poses challenges for students in cultivating their creativity in painting. Objectives: The present study explores students' creativity, socially shared regulation (SSR) and positive painting behaviours using an SSRL‐based collaborative painting approach in the metaverse (Meta‐CP). Methods: Via a quasi‐experimental design, a total of 40 Chinese students in fifth grade were recruited and were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 20 students utilizing the Meta‐CP approach, while the remaining 20 students followed the conventional SSRL‐based paper‐and‐brush collaborative painting (C‐CP) approach. The Meta‐CP approach not only offers an authentic painting context and a collaborative space but also facilitates the collaborative process through the SSRL framework. The data collection included students' creative tendency, painting works and painting process. Results and Conclusions: The Meta‐CP approach effectively enhances students' creativity concerning adventure, curiosity and imagination, as well as results in the creation of more distinctive and logical artistic works. Furthermore, the approach significantly improved the quality of students' SSR. Additionally, students utilizing the Meta‐CP approach displayed more positive painting behaviours compared with those employing the C‐CP approach. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic:Collaborative painting is an effective strategy for enhancing creativity.Socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) fosters collaborative learning.Students in collaborative painting may lack a contextual and synchronized painting space.The metaverse benefits in terms of contextual experiences and collaborative spaces. What this paper adds:Using an SSRL‐based collaborative painting approach in the metaverse (Meta‐CP) is effective in improving students' creativity.The Meta‐CP approach has the potential to improve students' quality of socially shared regulation (SSR), and positive painting behaviours. Implications for practice and/or policy:The metaverse provides an immersive synchronized painting space for art education to stimulate students' creative potential.The metaverse with proper learning strategies (e.g., SSRL) provides an effective collaborative learning environment for creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research reviews 56 robots in science education (RSE) research articles published in SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) journals in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The analysis results showed that there were three clusters of RSE studies: robots in elementary science education, robot-based STEM activities, and robot-facilitated computational thinking. In terms of the research issues, more studies were conducted across-disciplines. Regarding thematic classifications, "general benefits of educational robots" was the most frequently investigated issue, while "diversity and broadening participation," and "creativity and motivation" were less frequently discussed. The most adopted research methods were quantitative and mixed methods, focusing on measuring learners' cognition and affect. Most of the interventions in the empirical studies adopted pedagogical interventions. In terms of the interaction issue, LEGO was adopted the most, followed by self-made robots; moreover, robots frequently played the role of tools in science education. From the perspective of specific robotics content knowledge, "control" (e.g. programming) comprised the majority. The most adopted learning strategy was project-based learning, followed by issue-based discussion. Regarding assessment issues, the most adopted evaluation approaches to evaluating students' performance were questionnaires, observation, verbal interviews, and artifacts to assess the quality of learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In science education, chemistry is a discipline that involves macroscopic matter and microscopic particles. It is difficult for the traditional teaching approach to help learners comprehend abstract chemical knowledge. Researchers have attempted to use Virtual Reality (VR) to help learners realize meaningful knowledge via visualizing the learning content. However, merely engaging students in experiencing the scientific contexts is not enough. To fill this gap, the present study adopted Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (SVVR) to create authentic learning contexts for learners, and proposed an exploration-based SVVR approach which aimed to promote students' understanding of abstract concepts and improve their competence of completing chemistry experiments. A quasi-experimental design was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. A total of 136 junior high school students from three classes were recruited for the experiment. The experimental group adopted the exploration-based SVVR approach, control group I adopted the conventional SVVR approach, and control group II adopted traditional instruction. The results showed that the exploration-based SVVR approach not only improved students' learning achievement, but also increased their learning motivation, learning attitude, and creative thinking tendency. Besides, students adopting this approach had more positive behaviors, including finding problems, making assumptions, investigating and verifying, and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Reality (VR) shows the potential to tackle the limitations and deficiencies of traditional microteaching training by offering an intricate and lifelike environment that helps pre-service teachers to develop their teaching skills. However, the effects of VR training on each teaching skill sub-dimension remain inconclusive. This study identified nine sub-dimensions of teaching skills through a literature review. Moreover, a VR-based microteaching training system was developed, and the effects of VR on these sub-dimensions of teaching skills were explored by conducting a comparative experiment between virtual and traditional microteaching training. The results showed that virtual microteaching considerably enhanced pre-service teachers' teacher efficacy compared to traditional training, especially the efficacy of instructional strategies and classroom management. Furthermore, more significant improvements were noted in the questioning skill and the language and posture skills after virtual microteaching training, although there was no significant difference in teaching skills overall. Moreover, pre-service teachers reported a highly immersive experience during the virtual microteaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In language education, the development of writing capability is an important and challenging teaching objective. Writing performance is related not only with students' comprehension and expression of texts, but also their experience and perceptions of the contexts. Descriptive article writing is a basic writing activity; the content includes concrete understanding and perceptions of space, time, and contexts. However, in the traditional language teaching activities, there is usually no chance for students to have in-depth feelings about the contexts of a topic. This usually results in low learning motivation and limited expression during the writing process. Therefore, the present study attempted to adopt spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) to enable students to have in-depth experience and perceptions and to facilitate their learning effectiveness. Based on this approach, a Chinese writing SVVR learning system was developed and a quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the effects of the proposed approach and the conventional technology-supported learning approach in a senior high school writing class. The findings show that the proposed SVVR writing approach could improve students' writing performance in terms of content and appearance as well as their creativity tendency and writing self-efficacy, while also reducing their cognitive load.

The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the important tools for diagnosing myocardial infarction. The ECG training course aims to help nurses establish basic competence in interpreting ECG readings. However, in traditional instruction, learners usually have difficulty memorizing the meanings of different ECG wave forms, which could represent clinical symptoms, or even life-threatening conditions/arrhythmia. Some serious problems could cause death if the nursing staff do not make correct judgments in time. This paper reports an explorative study which investigated a novel pedagogy for nursing school students' ECG learning performance using a contextual game. A 2 week experiment was conducted to compare the learning performances of the nursing students who played the ECG contextual game and those who learned with traditional instruction. The experimental results show that the students learning with the contextual game showed better learning performance, attitude, motivation, and critical thinking tendency than those who received the traditional instruction.

The present study explored the impact of concept mapping-based flipped learning as a listening-speaking strategy on learning achievement, English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' critical thinking awareness and EFL speaking anxiety. The study utilized a pretest/posttest control and a quasi-experimental design. Seventy-two EFL learners were assigned to experimental (n = 37) and control (n = 35) groups. The results of the pretest indicated that the participants of the two groups were homogeneous concerning their proficiency level, critical thinking awareness and EFL speaking anxiety. The experimental group was instructed to construct concept maps after each listening task, and formulated their answers to the required speaking tasks from their concept maps. The results of the posttest indicated that concept mapping has a positive and significant influence on EFL learners' English speaking performance and critical thinking awareness, and can decrease their speaking anxiety. Moreover, the relationships between concept mapping, learning performance, and critical thinking are statistically correlated. The results also revealed a significant negative relationship between speaking anxiety and the other variables.

In various case-based training courses, such as engineering, science and medical courses, students need to learn not only the skills to deal with problems, but also the knowledge to identify problems and make correct decisions. Such educational objectives have been recognized by educators as being important but challenging. In this study, an RSI (Recognize, Summarize, Inquire)-based flipped classroom is proposed to achieve this aim. Moreover, an explorative study was designed to probe the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a nursing case-based training course. The case-handling performances of the students trained with the RSI-based flipped classroom and those trained with the conventional flipped classroom were compared. The findings reveal that the RSI-based flipped classroom promoted the students' learning achievement, self-efficacy, critical thinking, and satisfaction more than the conventional case-based training did.

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.

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.

Vocabulary mastery is critical to English as Foreign Language students. Mobile technologies enable students to learn vocabulary without space and time limitations. However, existing mobile-assisted vocabulary learning research often employed teacher-directed activities that increased instructors' workload, undermined student motivation or targeted individual cognitive outcomes only. In this study, a Contribution-oriented Self-Directed Mobile Learning Ecology (CSDMLE) model is proposed for developing student-directed and motivational vocabulary learning activities in groups. Through a mixed-method design, we administered a survey and a vocabulary test to 55 freshmen students in a Chinese university, and conducted follow-up interviews. We found that students in the CSDMLE group outperformed those not in the group in the post-test vocabulary test, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups' delayed vocabulary test or L2 motivation. However, the treatment group displayed a highly favorable attitude toward the learning approach and a strong intention to use it continuously. The findings have implications for technology-supported vocabulary learning activities.

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.

Based on the Technology-based Learning model, the present study reviews the published papers on mobile technologies in Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism (HLST) education in the Scopus database from 2002 to 2017. Various dimensions, including application domains, research issues, research sample groups, research methods, adopted technologies, and learning strategies are taken into account. It was found that, since 2010, the research issues of mobile technology-supported HLST education have become increasingly diverse. Most of the studies investigated learners' affect issues, while there was also a focus on learners' attitudes, motivation and learning experiences. Moreover, wireless Internet locating (e.g. Bluetooth or Zigbee) was adopted more frequently in mobile technology-supported HLST education, while sensing technologies were seldom adopted. As for mobile devices, with the development of technologies, smart phones and tablet computers became the main devices. In addition, such extensively adopted mobile learning strategies as synchronous sharing, issue-based discussion, computers as mindtools, and game-based learning were not adopted in the studies, indicating that most previous studies focused more on learners' learning perceptions, knowledge delivery and skills training, while less effort has been made to cultivate learners' higher order thinking, such as problem solving, critical thinking and collaborative competences. Accordingly, potential research issues and practitioner notes of mobile technology-supported HLST education are proposed as a reference for researchers, teachers and decision-makers.

The present study aims to investigate the trends of mobile learning in physical education by reviewing the journal publications from the Scopus database. Several dimensions, including application domains, adopted mobile devices, research methods, research subjects, adopted teaching strategies, research issues, and learning locations are taken into account. The results show that the number of mobile learning papers in physical education has increased year after year, and that the integration of new mobile technologies into physical education activities is becoming much more common. The adoption of mobile devices in physical education and professional training, especially for the development of smartphones and wearable devices, facilitates the abundance of physical education and the growth of social physical education; however, the overall usage of such high-tech devices as wearable technologies is still limited. Most attention has been paid to communities on university campuses, but more focus should be placed on junior and senior high school and elementary school students. Currently, the types of sports involved in mobile learning are comparatively few; most focus on dynamic physical education. The application of mainstream teaching strategies of mobile learning in physical education is also limited. Accordingly, several research issues for mobile technologies in physical education are recommended.

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.

Although flipped learning has been recognized as being a potential approach enabling students to learn at their own pace before the class and facilitating in-depth peer-to-peer and student-to-teacher interactions in the class, it remains a challenge to promote students' active learning in the before-class stage, which could significantly affect their in-class engagement and learning performance. In this study, a reflective thinking-promoting approach is proposed to facilitate students' learning design project performance, technology-enhanced active engagement, and their reflective thinking and participation in the before-class stage of flipped learning. A quasi-experiment was conducted on a flipped Digital Learning course of a Master's program in a university to evaluate the effects of the approach on students' learning design performance, engagement, reflective thinking and participation. A total of 19 students (7 male and 12 female) were in the experimental group learning with the reflective thinking-promoting approach, while 19 (4 male and 15 female) were in the control group learning with the conventional flipped learning approach. The results indicated that the proposed approach significantly enhanced not only the students' learning design project outcomes and reflective thinking, but also their engagement and participation in the before-class stage of flipped learning.

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.