Search

This phenomenological qualitative study describes students' experiences and counter‐stories of school climate and how school climate matters for their academic achievement in an urban school district. The study uses a critical race perspective to help understand contextual influences on school climate. Data were collected through eight focus group interviews comprised of students conducted in middle and high schools in a large Midwest urban school district. Themes emerged within each school climate domain: teacher support, teacher expectations, safety, and peer social and emotional competence. The study results describe how students experience and understand school climate—perception of safety in schools with a mix of safe and unsafe home‐community climate—and demonstrate how students acknowledge the relationship between school climate and academic achievement. Urban secondary students are observant of the social‐emotional learning of their peers and maintain awareness of group differences as expressed in their counter‐stories. The findings advanced our understanding of school climate in urban contexts where social‐contextual‐struggles experienced by people of color affect their school experiences. The discussion includes practical implications for educators and administrators and directions for future research. Practitioner points: What is the main issue that the paper addresses? Students' experiences and counter‐stories of school climate and how school climate matters for their academic achievement in an urban school district.What are the main insights that the paper provides? Students acknowledge the relationship between school climate and academic achievement. Urban secondary students are observant of the social‐emotional learning of their peers and maintain awareness of group differences as expressed in their counter‐stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the effectiveness of tutoring‐style videos has been reported in previous studies conducted in laboratories, how these types of videos facilitate students' learning experiences and achievement has not been much explored in prior studies, which prevents discussion on how to design such tutoring‐style videos. Objectives: In this study, we addressed the limitations reported in studies conducted in authentic classes and attempted to explore students' learning patterns and experiences with tutoring‐style videos involving interactions between the instructor and agents. In addition, we attempted to reveal what instructional strategies can be used in tutoring‐style videos to enhance students' engagement and achievement. Methods: The study took place in an undergraduate introductory biology class offered at a university located in the Midwest of the United States. The same instructor taught two sections of this course which lasted for 15 weeks during a Spring semester. The two sections were randomly assigned to an experimental group in which participants watched tutoring‐style videos and a control group with participants watching traditional videos. The experiment was administered in a module lasting two and a half weeks focused on microbiology. Surveys and tests were conducted to determine whether the tutoring‐style videos had a positive impact on student engagement and achievement. In addition, a video content analysis was carried out to elicit insights on how to design effective tutoring‐style videos. Results: For students' emotional engagement and perceived usefulness, no significant difference was found between the two groups, even though the descriptive statistics indicated slightly higher scores from the experimental group than the control group on both subscales. In terms of achievement, the participants reported significantly more learned concepts from watching rich‐interactions in the tutoring‐style videos than the participants in the control group; and they also reported a significantly smaller number of learned concepts from watching one‐interactions in the videos than the control group participants. We also found that instruction in the tutoring‐style videos used effective strategies for facilitating students' participation and cognitive processing. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that tutoring‐style videos can be effective learning materials by allowing students to engage in interactions between instructors and agents in the videos. The more instructional strategies used to facilitate the interactions between the instructor and the agents, the higher engagement can be expected from viewers. Our study would inform the design and development of effective tutoring‐style videos. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: One‐on‐one tutoring is the gold standard in teaching.Tutoring‐style videos are found to be effective in teaching as well. What this paper adds: Tutoring‐style videos that film rich interactions lead to better learning.Tutoring‐style videos that film limited interactions are ineffective.Students who see agents in tutoring‐style videos as helpful perform better. Implications for practice and/or policy: Tutoring‐style videos should film rich interactions of tutoring sessions.Strategies should be used in videos to facilitate perceived agents' usefulness.Tutoring sessions filmed in videos should encourage a participatory atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual learning environments can now be enriched not only with visual and auditory information, but also with tactile and kinesthetic feedback. However, the way to successfully integrate haptic feedback on a multimodal learning environment is still unclear. This study aims to provide guidelines on how visuohaptic simulations can be implemented effectively, thus the research question is: Under what conditions do visual and tactile information support students' development of conceptual learning of force‐related concepts? Participants comprised 170 undergraduate students of a Midwestern University enrolled in a physics for elementary education class. Four experiments were conducted using four different configurations of multimodal learning environments: Visual feedback only, haptic force feedback only, visual and haptic force feedback at the same time, and sequenced modality of haptic feedback first and visual feedback second. Our results suggest that haptic force feedback has the potential to enrich learning when compared with visual only environments. Also, haptic and visual modalities interact better when sequenced one after another rather than presented simultaneously. Finally, exposure to virtual learning environments enhanced by haptic forced feedback was a positive experience, but the ease of use and ease of interpretation was not so evident. Lay Description: What is already known about the topic: Multimedia learning environments enrich learning by using verbal and non‐verbal modalities.Previous research about the impact of haptic feedback in the simulation of abstract phenomena has not provided concluding results.It has been hypothesized that exposure to diverse stimuli at the same time may cause cognitive overload.What this paper adds: Sequenced modality of haptic force feedback first and visual feedback second may provide a learning advantage to single modalities or combined modalities.Participants' interaction with haptic force feedback was perceived as a positive learning experience.Implications for practice and/or policy: Participants exposed to any haptic force feedback stimulus outperformed participants interacting with visual feedback only. However, the difference was not statistically different at ∝ = 0.05.The incorporation of haptic force feedback to a multimodal learning environment may improve students' performance when delivered via a sequenced approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the increasingly challenging resource environments in many business schools, this study examined whether course technologies, learner behaviors or instructor behaviors best predict online course outcomes so that administrators and support personnel can prioritize their efforts and investments. Based on reviewing prior online and blended management education literature, we hypothesized that instructor behaviors would be most predictive of online course outcomes. However, our study of 48 online Master of Business Administration courses found that although instructor behaviors (operationalized as teaching presence) was the strongest predictor of any of our three outcome variables (perceived learning), only student behaviors (operationalized as social presence) significantly predicted all three (course grades, perceived learning and delivery medium satisfaction). Technological characteristics, operationalized using variables from the technology acceptance model and media variety, predicted perceived learning (perceived ease of use) and delivery medium satisfaction (perceived usefulness). The paper provides recommendations for instructors and administrators based on the findings, specifically advocating for a balance between instructor and administrator involvement in course design, presentation and conduct. The paper concludes by describing research opportunities regarding the roles of social presence in and collaborative approaches to online learning in business schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we briefly review the construct of personal values, and we examine whether achievement values may be incrementally related to performance beyond personality. We also consider the motivational processes that may mediate the relationships between characteristics of the individual (personality and values) and performance. In an academic setting, achievement values were related to course performance even after controlling for the relevant personality factors of Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion. Further, motivational processes of goal content and goal striving mediated the relationships between individual characteristics (personality and values) and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]