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Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are gaining increasing popularity in education. Due to their increasing popularity, many empirical studies have been devoted to exploring the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. The proliferation of experimental studies has highlighted the need to summarize and synthesize the inconsistent findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. However, few reviews focused on the meta‐analysis of the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. The present study performed a meta‐analysis of 24 randomized studies utilizing Stata software (version 14). The main goal of the current study was to meta‐analytically examine the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes and the moderating effects of educational levels and intervention duration. The results indicated that AI chatbots had a large effect on students' learning outcomes. Moreover, AI chatbots had a greater effect on students in higher education, compared to those in primary education and secondary education. In addition, short interventions were found to have a stronger effect on students' learning outcomes than long interventions. It could be explained by the argument that the novelty effects of AI chatbots could improve learning outcomes in short interventions, but it has worn off in the long interventions. Future designers and educators should make attempt to increase students' learning outcomes by equipping AI chatbots with human‐like avatars, gamification elements and emotional intelligence. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicIn recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have been gaining increasing popularity in education.Studies undertaken so far have provided conflicting evidence concerning the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.There has remained a paucity of meta‐analyses synthesizing the contradictory findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.What this paper addsThis study, through meta‐analysis, synthesized these recent findings about the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes.This study found that AI chatbots could have a large effect on students' learning outcomes.This study found that the effects of AI chatbots were moderated by educational levels and intervention duration.Implications for practice and/or policyAI chatbot designers could make AI chatbots better by equipping AI chatbots with human‐like avatars, gamification elements and emotional intelligencePractitioners and/or teachers should draw attention to the positive and negative effects of AI chatbots on students.Considering the importance of ChatGPT, more research is required to develop a better understanding of the effects of ChatGPT in education.More research is needed to examine the mechanisms underlying the effects of AI chatbots on students' learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue in this paper that there is currently no adequate theoretical framework or model that spans the twelve odd year trajectory from non‐reader to proficient reader, nor addresses fine‐grain skill acquisition, mastery and integration. The target construct itself, reading proficiency, as often operationalized as an endpoint of formal secondary schooling, is defined and measured in imprecise, fragmented terms. Consequently, schools (and empirical research) fall back on heuristics like the Simple View of Reading, or a few stages (learn to read, read to learn, read to do) to describe reading development. Those models, however, are too general to guide instructional decisions for adaptive learning systems. Progress in engineering an adequate learning system has been inhibited by a mismatch with curriculum standards and school organization that impose good‐faith but not fully optimized developmental targets on the educational system. We propose the development of a learning and assessment framework to scaffold reading proficiency development while accounting for the diverse learning trajectories of groups or individuals across development. We then identify some key problems, challenges and opportunities that AI technologies are poised to help us address in conceiving individualized, adaptive learning systems for reading proficiency across the developmental spectrum. We close with a selective review of examples of AI‐enhanced research or products. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Reading proficiency is a vital component of education systems design.Theoretical and empirical studies across multiple disciplines have been published, but much of this research is framed in fragmented theories that do not seamlessly span the trajectory of life‐long reading development.Current assessments are time‐consuming, coarse‐grained and fail to provide a roadmap for educators and designers of adaptive learning environments.There is a significant lack of knowledge of potentially non‐linear growth in reading skills within or between years and how to design adaptive instruction for diverse subpopulations.What this paper adds We describe the initial steps towards a literacy learning and assessment framework that spans the trajectory from non‐reader to proficient reader.We provide a landscape of exemplars of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics that reflect the possibilities of a more comprehensive, cohesive literacy development system.We reflect upon key problems, challenges and opportunities that AI technologies can help address in conceiving individualized, adaptive learning systems for reading proficiency across the developmental spectrum.Implications for practice and/or policy AI and computational linguistics can help fill in the gaps in understanding and enacting a longitudinal vision of reading development.Educators would ideally know what to expect of their students at particular points of development, identify deviations and have additional tools to intervene effectively to maximize progress.There is a need to develop adaptive instruction that spans the development of proficiency from preschool to college/career levels and adapts to address common barriers among diverse subpopulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology‐based, open‐ended learning environments (OELEs) can capture detailed information of students' interactions as they work through a task or solve a problem embedded in the environment. This information, in the form of log data, has the potential to provide important insights about the practices adopted by students for scientific inquiry and problem solving. How to parse and analyse the log data to reveal evidence of multifaceted constructs like inquiry and problem solving holds the key to making interactive learning environments useful for assessing students' higher‐order competencies. In this paper, we present a systematic review of studies that used log data generated in OELEs to describe, model and assess scientific inquiry and problem solving. We identify and analyse 70 conference proceedings and journal papers published between 2012 and 2021. Our results reveal large variations in OELE and task characteristics, approaches used to extract features from log data and interpretation models used to link features to target constructs. While the educational data mining and learning analytics communities have made progress in leveraging log data to model inquiry and problem solving, multiple barriers still exist to hamper the production of representative, reproducible and generalizable results. Based on the trends identified, we lay out a set of recommendations pertaining to key aspects of the workflow that we believe will help the field develop more systematic approaches to designing and using OELEs for studying how students engage in inquiry and problem‐solving practices. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Research has shown that technology‐based, open‐ended learning environments (OELEs) that collect users' interaction data are potentially useful tools for engaging students in practice‐based STEM learning.More work is needed to identify generalizable principles of how to design OELE tasks to support student learning and how to analyse the log data to assess student performance.What this paper adds We identified multiple barriers to the production of sufficiently generalizable and robust results to inform practice, with respect to: (1) the design characteristics of the OELE‐based tasks, (2) the target competencies measured, (3) the approaches and techniques used to extract features from log files and (4) the models used to link features to the competencies.Based on this analysis, we can provide a series of specific recommendations to inform future research and facilitate the generalizability and interpretability of results: Making the data available in open‐access repositories, similar to the PISA tasks, for easy access and sharing.Defining target practices more precisely to better align task design with target practices and to facilitate between‐study comparisons.More systematic evaluation of OELE and task designs to improve the psychometric properties of OELE‐based measurement tasks and analysis processes.Focusing more on internal and external validation of both feature generation processes and statistical models, for example with data from different samples or by systematically varying the analysis methods.Implications for practice and/or policy Using the framework of evidence‐centered assessment design, we have identified relevant criteria for organizing and evaluating the diverse body of empirical studies on the topic and that policy makers and practitioners can use for their own further examinations.This paper identifies promising research and development areas on the measurement and assessment of higher‐order constructs with process data from OELE‐based tasks that government agencies and foundations can support.Researchers, technologists and assessment designers might find useful the insights and recommendations for how OELEs can enhance science assessment through thoughtful integration of learning theories, task design and data mining techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promise of using immersive technologies in learning has increasingly been attracting researchers' and practitioners' attention. However, relevant empirical works are usually conducted in fully controlled Virtual Reality (VR) laboratories, as opposed to conventional settings. This quasi‐experimental study compares the effectiveness of video learning resources to that of stereoscopic 360° VR, as supplements to the traditional instructional approach. The potential of such methods was examined in high school settings, in the context of the 'Life and Evolution' module, with participants (n = 70) divided equally into control and experimental groups. As a point of reference (control condition), we considered the adoption of Video Learning Resources, as students are more acquainted with this instructional method. In the intervention approach (experimental condition), students adopted the use of low‐end mobile‐VR (VeeR Mini VR Goggles). The key findings indicate differences in the learning motivation, confidence and satisfaction, but no statistically significant difference was identified regarding the factual or conceptual knowledge gains. The study offers insights on the potential of the investigated technologies in the subject of secondary school Biology and further provides implications for theory and practice. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicResearchers' interest over the potential of Virtual Reality on different STEM disciplines is increasing consistently.An increasing number of efforts can be identified discussing the integration of multimedia learning resources in the secondary school context.Empirical studies on the subject of Biology are focusing on students' academic performance and achievement but not on learning motivation and satisfaction.What this paper addsThis quasi‐experimental study comparatively examines academic performance, with the focus being on learning motivation and satisfaction, across different modalities (stereoscopic 360° Virtual Reality applications‐VR, Video Learning Recourses‐VLR).The findings demonstrate that both instructional methods are sufficient in enhancing students' knowledge acquisition and academic performance.The adoption of stereoscopic 360° VR influences students' learning motivation and impacts long‐term memory retention.Implications for practice and policyEducators are advised to consider the systematic adoption of "immersive" multimedia tools to enhance the subject of Biology as they can greatly encourage scientific inquiry.Instructional designers are advised to adopt open educational resources aligned to the curriculum of the local context.Educational researchers are advised to integrate stereoscopic 360°‐VR solutions in the conventional classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic procrastination refers to individuals' unnecessary postponement of their coursework and is harmful for academic performance. When situated in self‐placed and remote learning environments, students' tendency to procrastinate increases. Therefore, understanding why students procrastinate and identifying who is more likely to delay unnecessarily in online learning environments is an important area to study. The goal of this study was to respond to this call by examining the structural relations between conscientiousness, prior online learning experience, achievement emotions and academic procrastination in online learning environments using structural equation modelling. In particular, two main facets of conscientiousness—proactive and inhibitive—were examined in order to understand which facet was more responsible for procrastination, how each facet was related to procrastination and to determine which facet of conscientiousness should be the primary target for intervention in future experimental research. A total of 746 students from 49 secondary and postsecondary schools participated in the current study. The results showed that the proactive aspect of conscientiousness was negatively related to academic procrastination through the pathway of enjoyment. The inhibitive aspect of conscientiousness was negatively related to academic procrastination through the pathways of negative emotions. Although prior online learning experience did not have a significant and direct association with academic procrastination, it was indirectly related to students' tendency to put off coursework through the pathways of enjoyment and negative emotions. Of all the paths, negative emotions had the strongest associations with academic procrastination in online learning environments. The findings of indirect effects suggest that students with low conscientiousness, the inhibitive aspect in particular, and few prior online learning experiences are more likely to procrastinate in online classes possibly owing to the suboptimal emotional experiences aroused during their learning processes. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicConscientiousness has a direct association with academic procrastination in in‐person classes.Prior online learning experience has direct associations with students' adaptive regulatory processes in online classes.Achievement emotion is an integral part of online learning.What this paper addsConscientiousness has a direct association with academic procrastination in online learning environments.Prior online learning experience has no direct associations with academic procrastination in online learning environments.Conscientiousness indirectly relates to academic procrastination through achievement emotions in online learning environments.Prior online learning experience indirectly relates to academic procrastination through achievement emotions in online learning environments.Implications for practice and/or policyInstructors are suggested to pay attention to students with low conscientiousness and few prior online learning experiences since they are more likely to procrastinate in online learning environments.Students' tendency to procrastinate in online learning environments is strongly associated with their emotional experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an implementation of Connected Spaces (CxS)—an ambient help seeking interface designed and developed for a project‐based computing classroom. We use actor network theory (ANT) to provide an underutilized posthumanist lens to understand the creation of collaborative connections in this Computational Action‐based implementation. Posthumanism offers an emerging and critical extension to sociocultural perspectives on understanding learning, by pushing us to decenter the human, and consider the active roles that human and non‐human entities play in learning environments by actively shaping each other. We analyse how students in this class adjusted their help‐seeking and collaborative habits following the introduction of CxS, a tool designed to foster (more inter‐group) collaboration. ANT proposes generalized symmetry—a principle of considering human, non‐human and more than human entities with equivalent and comparable agency, leading to describing phenomena as networks of actors in different evolving relationships with each other. Analysing collaborative interactions as fostered by CxS using an ANT approach supports design‐based research—an iterative design revision process highlighting understandings about design as well as learning—by providing a temporal and informative lens into the relationship between actors and tools within the environment. Our key findings include a framing of technologies in classrooms as bridging agentic gaps between students and becoming actors engaging in different behaviours; learners enacting new agencies through technologies (for instance a more comfortable non‐intrusive help seeker), and the need for voicing and teachers to connect help networks in CxS equipped classrooms. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Collaborative learning is a valuable skill and practice; opportunities to mentor others are critical in empowering minoritized learners, especially in STEM and computing disciplines.School norms solidify a power and expertise hierarchy between teachers and learners and fail to productively support learners in learning from each other.Additionally, lack of awareness about peers' knowledge is a common hindrance in students knowing who to ask for help and how.What this paper adds An example of a designed interface called Connected Spaces with potential to foster more inter‐student collaboration, especially outside of mandated within‐group collaboration—in the form of cross‐group help seeking and help giving.A design based research study using actor network theory highlighting the limitations of Connected Spaces in sparking notable behaviour change among students by itself but being retooled as a teacher support tool in enabling cross‐group collaborations.Presenting conceptions of collaboration through technologies as bridging agentic gaps and acting with new agencies in performing help‐seeking related actions.Provoking the idea of testing emerging technologies in classrooms along with sharing our analyses and reflections with the classroom as a key idea in computing education—surfacing the gap between designed intentions and the different kinds of extra social work needed in the on‐ground success of different technologies.Implications for practice and/or policy Designers and researchers should create and test more interfaces alongside teachers across different classrooms and contexts aimed at supporting different kinds of voluntary collaborative interactions.Curricula, standards and school practices should further center providing students with opportunities to engage as mentors and build communities of learning across disciplines to empower minoritized students.Researchers engaging in design based research should consider using more posthumanist lenses to examine educational technologies and how they affect change in learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as inspiration, this paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia storytelling experience, which encompasses simple hands‐on activities and an online narrative experience that allows students to model scientific work and engage in various science activities. The study aimed to test whether students can develop higher science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs, and a stronger science curiosity, by engaging in the transmedia experience that combined hands‐on and online narrative activities compared with participating in only hands‐on or online narrative experiences. Our paper presents findings from two classroom studies using survey findings. Results show that all three conditions (hands‐on, online game experience and transmedia) had a significant positive impact on learners' self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity, but there was no additional benefit for the transmedia condition. Nevertheless, our work has various implications for learning sciences about the potential benefits and drawbacks of transmedia storytelling experiences. Our findings can help educators and researchers design and run transmedia storytelling projects. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Transmedia storytelling is a popular and adaptable learning application.Transmedia storytelling can be beneficial due to transfer of learning.Transmedia storytelling may foster learners' engagement and knowledge acquisition.What this paper adds The paper presents a Frankenstein‐themed transmedia experience that combines digital and hands‐on activities and borrows several themes from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.Findings from this study show that transmedia storytelling can boost learners' science and creative self‐efficacy beliefs and science curiosity.However, transmedia storytelling combining digital and hands‐on experiences is not more effective in bolstering self‐efficacy beliefs and curiosity than digital or hands‐on experiences alone.Implications for practice and/or policy Transmedia storytelling might have unintended consequences for learning because it may exhaust learners' cognitive resources.Learners' transliteracy skills and competencies may influence what benefits they gain from partaking in transmedia storytelling experiences.Educators need to take learners' transliteracy skills into consideration when they wish to design and/or use transmedia storytelling experiences for learning purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data literacy has been suggested as an important competence that individuals need to succeed in a data‐intensive society. However, there is no common understanding as to what data literacy entails and how it could be developed. Instructional emphasis on developing competence of individuals fails to capture learners' relationship to data in everyday life and limits what they can possibly achieve in data‐rich environments. This paper critically reviews conceptualizations of data literacy in the literature with a focus in K‐12 education. The analysis determined four orientations of data literacy: development of competence, inquiry with data, awareness of personal data and civic engagement. I proposed a broader conceptualization of data literacy that integrates conceptions, competencies and contexts. The study offers holistic and context‐oriented framing of data literacy for researchers and educators. Practitioner notesWhat is known about the topic Data literacy is a potential buzzword in the recent literature. There are increasing calls for developing data literacy skills of students and the general public.Data literacy is framed and implemented as a technical competence. Accordingly, curricular interventions and pedagogical practices focus on making use of data and benefiting from available datasets.What this paper adds The above framing of data literacy is too narrow to be useful in everyday life and rarely considers individuals interaction with data outside of schools.This study develops four focus areas in the conceptualization of data literacy and suggests broader framing of the concept as it relates to everyday life.It also suggests context‐oriented approaches to data literacy education that can go beyond classrooms and academic activities.Implications for practice and policy This paper has implication for educators, researchers and policy makers. It allows boarder conceptualizations of data literacy that can be used in curricular interventions. It also provides ways of designing learning environments for the data literacy education and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of the educational game design elements immersion, collaboration and debriefing, on fostering learning with educational escape rooms. We based the design of the escape room on an educational game design framework that aligns the learning goal and the game goal, that is, escaping from the room. One‐hundred‐and‐twenty‐six students, aged between 16 and 20 played the escape room. Measures for learning were pre‐and post‐tests. The game experience was measured through questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers. The results show a knowledge gain between pre‐and post‐test. Correlational analysis showed that all three design elements contributed to students' appreciation of the escape room, whereas only immersion had a direct contribution to knowledge gain. Based on the qualitative data it appeared that the used escape boxes contributed most to perceived immersion. Immersion helps students focus on each other and the tasks. Also, a narrative with distinct roles for each student helped to evoke immersion. Unexpectedly, these roles also scaffolded collaboration except for students in the school that engaged in a collaborative learning pedagogy. The study confirms the usability of the framework for game designs, based on theories for the design of physical and hybrid educational games. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic The escape room as a learning environment appeals to teachers of different disciplines, ages, gender and teaching experiences.Teachers implement escape rooms to create active (hybrid) learning spaces, where learners need a combination of knowledge and skills to solve the subject‐based activities.Students and teachers perceive that while participating in escape rooms, students are more engaged, active and learn more compared to regular classes. The assumption is that escape rooms support collaboration and automatically collaborative learning.Review studies on educational escape rooms show that a systematic evaluation is usually absent, disputable or indicates no knowledge gain.Teachers design their educational escape rooms based on digital escape games and/or their experience as players of escape rooms.For digital educational games, important game design aspects are researched.Three main challenges in designing educational games are (1) the participants' transition from the real world to the game world, (2) the alignment of game design aspects and educational aspects and (3) the transfer from attained experiences and knowledge back into the real world.What this paper adds This paper evaluates an educational game design framework for escape rooms, focussing on the above‐mentioned main challenges in designing educational games.It investigates the influence of the educational game design elements immersion, collaboration and debriefing, on fostering learning with a hybrid educational escape room.It informs that all three design elements contributed to students' appreciation of the escape room, whereas only immersion had a direct contribution to knowledge gain.The used hybrid escape boxes contributed most to the immersion; scaffolding students to focus on each other and the tasks.Students' collaboration was successfully fostered. However, it scarcely led to collaborative learning during gameplay, due to lack of discussion and reflection needed for deeper understanding.Implications for practice and/or policy The educational escape game framework would help educators creating immersive games, which not only confront learners with meaningful contexts but also give learning gains.The educational escape game framework would help researchers focussing on important and difficult aspects of designing and implementing educational escape rooms to develop and research more effective escape rooms.In guidelines on creating immersion in educational escape games, the notion of physical objects is lacking. In this hybrid escape room, the physical objects such as escape boxes were the most powerful in creating immersion. In addition, the use of sound design in escape games in classrooms seems overrated.Debriefing after the gameplay is perceived necessary to discuss common misunderstandings, to make connections between the topics in various puzzles and to add more content to interest high‐achieving students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to compare reading comprehension levels of two groups of students—an experimental and a control group—who read the same texts in course books using either augmented reality technique or traditional reading technique. Barrett's taxonomy, which proposes a classification of reading comprehension, consisting of literal comprehension, reorganization, inferential comprehension, evaluation and appreciation, was used to determine the reading comprehension levels of the students. The texts based on the augmented reality were produced with an augmented reality application developed by the authors using the Kotlin programming language. The participants of the study were 120 students aged 11–12 who attend a secondary school in Antalya (Turkey). In the pre‐test phase, both the experimental and control groups read the same texts from the course book and answered the comprehension questions. In the post‐test, the experimental group read the augmented reality texts using tablets while the control group read the texts in the traditional way. Then both groups answered comprehension questions. The results of the pre‐test revealed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of their total comprehension scores and their reading comprehension levels. The post‐test results indicated that the experimental group's overall comprehension scores were much higher than those of the control group. In terms of reading comprehension levels, no difference was found between the two groups in terms of literal comprehension levels. However, the experimental group is found to be much more successful in terms of the reorganization, inferential comprehension, evaluation and appreciation. These findings suggest that the augmented reality content may contribute to the students' reading comprehension performances. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic? There is limited research that augmented reality applications can support reading comprehension in general.Little is known about the effect of augmented reality applications on reading comprehension levels.In the researches examining the effect of augmented reality applications on the reading comprehension levels of students, the existing augmented reality applications were generally preferred.What this paper adds? This study aims to develop an augmented reality application that can be integrated into the textbooks used in schools.In this study, Barrett's taxonomy was used to reveal which levels of reading comprehension the augmented reality application could support.Augmented reality supported reading activity supports students' reorganization, inferential comprehension, evaluation and appreciation levels.Augmented reality supported reading activity does not make a difference in students' literal comprehension levels.Implications for practice and/or policy The developed augmented reality application can be used as a teaching tool in schools.The study provides an example of how augmented reality can be used in reading activity in schools.The data of this study can be used by teachers who want to support students' levels of reorganization, inferential comprehension, evaluation and appreciation comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially shared regulation contributes to the success of collaborative learning. However, the assessment of socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) faces several challenges in the effort to increase the understanding of collaborative learning and support outcomes due to the unobservability of the related cognitive and emotional processes. The recent development of trace‐based assessment has enabled innovative opportunities to overcome the problem. Despite the potential of a trace‐based approach to study SSRL, there remains a paucity of evidence on how trace‐based evidence could be captured and utilised to assess and promote SSRL. This study aims to investigate the assessment of electrodermal activities (EDA) data to understand and support SSRL in collaborative learning, hence enhancing learning outcomes. The data collection involves secondary school students (N = 94) working collaboratively in groups through five science lessons. A multimodal data set of EDA and video data were examined to assess the relationship among shared arousals and interactions for SSRL. The results of this study inform the patterns among students' physiological activities and their SSRL interactions to provide trace‐based evidence for an adaptive and maladaptive pattern of collaborative learning. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence about how trace‐based data could be utilised to predict learning outcomes in collaborative learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Socially shared regulation has been recognised as an essential aspect of collaborative learning success.It is challenging to make the processes of learning regulation 'visible' to better understand and support student learning, especially in dynamic collaborative settings.Multimodal learning analytics are showing promise for being a powerful tool to reveal new insights into the temporal and sequential aspects of regulation in collaborative learning.What this paper adds Utilising multimodal big data analytics to reveal the regulatory patterns of shared physiological arousal events (SPAEs) and regulatory activities in collaborative learning.Providing evidence of using multimodal data including physiological signals to indicate trigger events in socially shared regulation.Examining the differences of regulatory patterns between successful and less successful collaborative learning sessions.Demonstrating the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to predict collaborative learning success by examining regulatory patterns.Implications for practice and/or policy Our findings offer insights into how students regulate their learning during collaborative learning, which can be used to design adaptive supports that can foster students' learning regulation.This study could encourage researchers and practitioners to consider the methodological development incorporating advanced techniques such as AI machine learning for capturing, processing and analysing multimodal data to examine and support learning regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamification is typically implemented digitally. However, digital gamification is not always possible because of limited resources and logistical problems. It is thus necessary to explore low‐threshold gamification methods that can be easily adopted in classrooms. One such method is non‐digital gamification using physical game design elements. Currently, the literature provides a limited understanding of the design and effects of non‐digital gamification. It is also unclear whether mixed gamification (ie, a combination of digital and non‐digital gamification) is better than purely non‐digital gamification. We explored these topics using an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design to compare the effectiveness of non‐digital gamification in a face‐to‐face course and mixed gamification in a blended course in terms of student learning achievement, cognitive engagement and course satisfaction. Two secondary grade classes were randomly assigned to the mixed (N = 52) or non‐digital (N = 52) gamification conditions. Contrary to our expectations, the quantitative results showed that the two approaches improved the students' learning achievement to the same extent. Although the students in the non‐digital gamification condition reported significantly higher‐course satisfaction than those in the mixed condition, the improvement in student cognitive engagement was significantly greater in the mixed gamification condition than in the non‐digital condition. Through focus group interviews, we analysed the students' learning experiences and synthesised the factors that influenced student cognitive engagement and course satisfaction. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Gamification is increasingly being used to increase student engagement and enhance learning.Gamification studies have mostly focused on digital modes, which often require gamified digital platforms or applications.Non‐digital gamification can be an effective method to foster learning, but the design and evaluation of non‐digital gamification is at an early stage.What this paper adds We designed non‐digital and mixed (ie, a combination of digital and non‐digital) gamification programmes and compared their effects using an explanatory sequential mixed‐methods design.Both gamification approaches led to a similar improvement in learning achievement.While non‐digital gamification fostered students' course satisfaction, mixed gamification was more effective in improving students' cognitive engagement.Implications for practice and/or policy Non‐digital gamification can be an effective low‐threshold solution for instructors. It is worth further improving the non‐digital gamification approach in school settings as it is cost‐effective and can be transferred between classrooms.The benefits of mixed gamification should not be ignored because of its affordances that improve students' cognitive engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flipped classroom (FC) is becoming an increasingly popular teaching method in mathematics education. However, few studies have rigorously evaluated its effectiveness, and less so in countries where students' level of mathematics achievement is low. In this study, we evaluated the impact of an FC intervention in Saudi Arabia, the country with the lowest level of maths achievement in the last iteration of the Trends International Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS. A total of 281 secondary school students received eight weeks of algebra training using either FC or traditional instruction, and were tested on algebra problems taken from past national standardised tests, as well as on a measure of self‐efficacy. Students who received the intervention showed higher self‐efficacy but no significant difference in maths achievement was observed. Students' and teachers' perceptions of the intervention were positive. Practitioner notes: What is already known about this topic The flipped classroom is an increasingly popular teaching method in mathematics education.There is evidence that the method is beneficial for students.However, there have been very few rigorous evaluation studies of flipped classrooms and most were conducted in the US, Taiwan and China.Whether the beneficial impact of flipped classrooms can be generalised to other countries, particularly countries with low proficiency in mathematics, remains unclear. What this paper adds We evaluated the impact of the flipped classroom in Saudi Arabia, a country with low proficiency in mathematics and limited technological resources.We used a rigorous design (with a control group) and educationally relevant outcome measures.We found that a flipped classroom can have a positive impact on students' self‐efficacy, and that the method was perceived positively by both teachers and students.Based on interview data, we also documented the perceptions and concerns of the participating teachers. Implications for practice and/or policy Flipped classrooms showed promising results in a context which differs markedly from previous evaluations, suggesting that the method can be beneficial in a range of contexts.This positive impact was observed despite the intervention being relatively short (six weeks) and implemented by teachers previously unfamiliar with the flipped classroom method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) in low‐achieving students is an important but challenging goal in education. This study used a knowledge‐building inquiry approach augmented by reflective assessment to facilitate low‐achieving students' PDE. A quasi‐experimental design method was employed to examine the effects of reflective assessment in supporting low‐achieving students' PDE. The experimental class of tenth graders (n = 20) conducted inquiries in the visual arts in a knowledge‐building design augmented by reflective assessment, while the comparison class of tenth graders (n = 14) conducted inquiries in a regular knowledge‐building design without reflective assessment. This study lasted approximately 4 months and the primary data source was the online discourse. A comparative analysis of the knowledge‐building discourse characteristics and the sequential patterns of the discourse moves revealed higher cognitive, emotional and epistemic engagement in the experimental class compared with the comparison class. Epistemic network analysis showed that reflective assessment facilitated low‐achieving students' collective reflection, monitoring and regulation, as shown by their metacognitive discourse moves. Their metacognition further helped them to achieve higher levels of cognitive, emotional and epistemic engagement than the comparison class. This study provides insights into the connections between inquiry, engagement and assessment. Moreover, it has implications for designing technology‐supported collaborative inquiry environments to support low‐achieving students' engagement and higher‐level skills. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Supporting low‐achieving students' productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) is an important but challenging goal in education and limited research has focused on it.Knowledge‐building inquiry design augmented by reflective assessment is promising in supporting low‐achieving students' PDE.Little research has examined the effects of reflective assessment‐augmented knowledge building inquiry on low‐achieving students' PDE and the mechanism through which reflective assessment supports their PDE.What this paper adds Reflective assessment‐augmented knowledge‐building inquiry is effective in supporting low‐achieving students' PDE.Portfolio‐supported Reflective assessment in Knowledge Forum facilitated low‐achieving students' enactment of collective reflection, monitoring and regulation, and these metacognitive processes further helped low‐achieving students to achieve higher levels of cognitive, emotional and epistemic engagement.This study provides insights into the connections between inquiry, engagement, and assessment.Implications for practice and/or policy It is crucial to create a collaborative and reflective community culture to help low‐achieving students gradually gain agency.It is critical to help low‐achieving students to develop a productive belief that idea improvement and reflection is a continuous and iterative process.The effectiveness of reflective assessment requires face‐to‐face knowledge‐building discussion and collaborative reflection opportunities scaffolded by assessment tools and analytics that encourage low‐achieving students to engage in meta‐level discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversational agents can deepen reasoning and encourage students to build on others' knowledge in collaborative learning. Embedding agents in group work, however, presents challenges where groups may ignore the agents, and this calls for designs where students perceive agents as learning partners. This study examines group interactions with two text‐based agents (ie, chatbots) that posed as an expert and a less knowledgeable peer in a high school marine biology lesson. Student messages (N = 1764) from 18 groups (52 students ages 14–15) received codes for reasoning, building on prior ideas, and responsiveness to the agents. Results indicate no differences between agents in how often each discussion move occurred. Interestingly, sequential pattern mining suggests that the less‐knowledgeable‐peer agent prompted groups to show questioning and building on others' ideas, similar to how students may act as peer tutors to the agent. Meanwhile, sequences with the expert agent resembled student‐teacher exchange, where groups responded to the agent's nudges and then provided reasoning. Findings illustrate the affordances of embedding humanized features in technology designs to promote discussion. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Conversational agents can facilitate group discussions, but can get abused or ignored by student groups.To engage students, agent designs can simulate the characteristics of familiar classroom figures, such as peers or teachers.There are limited explorations of how student groups adapt their interactions to different agent designs in collaborative settings.What the paper adds Illustrations of the utilities of diversifying agent designs in collaborative learning.Insights into the unique interaction patterns that student groups displayed to different designs, such as questioning and building on others' ideas with a less‐knowledgeable‐peer agent.Implications for practice and/or policy Embedding signs of humanness in classroom facilitation and technology design can foster responsiveness among users.Pedagogy can consider adaptive designs to promote interaction sequences that contribute to learning (eg, questioning, expanding on prior ideas) at opportune moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing digitisation, interest in digital personalised learning (DPL) continues to grow. Many empirical studies on the effect of adaptive tools have used a wide variety of conceptualisations and operationalisations of DPL. This systematic review aims to address the lack of consensus by presenting an analysis of empirical studies on technology for DPL in primary and secondary education. The work is guided by the following questions: (1) What are some different conceptualisations used in DPL research? (2) What types of tools are used in the studies and how are they implemented? (3) What is the current evidence on the impact of DPL with regard to student outcomes considering the nature of the current studies? A Boolean search string was used in the databases Web of Science and ERIC, resulting in a dataset containing 6,908 papers. A screening based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria yielded 53 papers. Our findings revealed a great diversity in DPL conceptualisations, with several authors not defining the concept and others providing information regarding different elements such as technology, personalisation, personalisation target, personalisation source, personalisation method and personalisation outcomes. In line with these differences in conceptualisation of DPL, several DPL tools were used across the studies. Concerning the impact of DPL, a positive trend was observed on learning outcomes, although methodological differences need to be considered. The review ends with guidelines for future research. Practitioner notesWhat is already known There are many definitions and terms concerning DPL, resulting in a lack of consensus in conceptualisation.There is a wide variety of DPL tools with different adaptive dimensions.Many authors emphasise the benefits of DPL in educational practice including a possible impact on learning gains.What this paper adds Contribution to a thorough understanding of the conceptualisation of DPL.Insights into the diversity in DPL tools building on a framework of adaptivity by Vandewaetere and Clarebout (2014) and adds focus on tool implementation as a context element.Insight into the impact of DPL taking into account study design and outcome indicators.Implications for practice and/or policy An overview of the affordances of DPL to educational researchers, educational policy makers, and teachers is provided that can encourage them to think about its opportunities for everyday practice.Concrete suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance in and perceptions of computational thinking (CT) are considered vital dimensions for comprehensively assessing CT skills of students. In this study, secondary school students' CT performance and their perceptions were examined in terms of certain variables including gender, grade level, achievement and self‐efficacy. Casual‐comparative and correlational methods were used. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 328 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade (10–12 years old) secondary school students taking visual programming lessons. CT performance and perception tests were employed as data collection tools. The results show that CT performance of boys was higher than that of girls. A significant difference was found in both CT performance and perception depending on grades. The results show that achievement in math positively affected CT performance and perception. However, achievement in IT affected CT performance less than achievement in math. Implications are discussed in terms of theoretical insights, practices for improving CT skills in secondary schools and directions for further research. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Due to the complex structure of computational thinking (CT) in association with computers, cognition, learning and psychology, CT skills should be evaluated from a variety of perspectives.CT performance and perception are considered vital dimensions for comprehensively assessing students' CT skills.What this paper adds This paper proposes a CT performance test and a CT perception scale for secondary school students to explore their skills in terms of certain variables including gender, grade level and achievements in math and information technology (IT) courses.This paper provides some evidence that CT performance of boys is better than that of girls. A significant difference was found in both CT performance and perception depending on grades. The results of the study show that math course achievement positively affected CT performance and perception. However, IT course achievement affected CT performance less than math course achievement.Implications for practice and/or policy CT performance is affected by different variables. Therefore, it may be beneficial to include specific topics in the curriculum that involve the use of more CT skills.Girls' interest and participation in practices such as programming can be encouraged.Teachers should provide students with cognitive scaffolding to help them and to have them collaborate with each other during CT activities, especially at higher grades.IT course content should include systematic and comprehensive CT activities to improve students' CT skills. We suggest developing and implementing a holistic curriculum combined with IT and math lessons to improve students' CT performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we adopt an ecological perspective to reflect on how a specific Italian school cluster adapted to the challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic by focusing on how students experienced the interplay between continuity and change in school teaching and learning practices caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the study investigates how the school's physical/virtual learning system was (re)configured to provide new opportunities for learning to a thousand‐plus population of primary and secondary students, and how they reacted to the transition to distance learning in terms of participation, autonomy, motivation and engagement. The research adopts a mixed method approach, based on school management system data and a survey tool, and analyses the students' response to the emergency from the perspectives of the students themselves, their teachers and their parents. While these converged in positive evaluation of the experience, a number of lessons were learnt, such as the importance of building on favourable pre‐existing conditions and leveraging a solid shared school culture to promote a prompt reaction to the emergency. Significantly, students with an immigrant background displayed varying degrees of participation in online activities. Overall, for each of the three stakeholder groups surveyed, solid pre‐existing digital competence levels and close collaboration within the school community were the most important factors for non‐traumatic transition to distance learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic? Research on the relationship between the COVID‐19 pandemic and the effects on teaching and learning processes is constantly increasing.Most recently published studies focus on higher education, while very few investigate the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on K‐12 education.Very few papers have studied the interplay between change and continuity within an educational ecosystem in times of crisis.What this paper adds? This is one of the first studies to analyse the process of systematic transition from onsite learning to online learning within the Italian school system in response to the pandemic.This study employs a multiple perspective research approach to analyse Emergency Remote Education in a sizeable school cluster, with a specific focus on student response.Teachers, students and their families all saw solid pre‐existing digital competence and close school community collaboration as key factors facilitating rapid adjustment to the emergency.Implications for practice and policy Having a solid common school culture to rely on facilitates prompt emergency reaction.Encouraging the creation of professional communities of practice that comprise both expert and novice teachers can help prepare educators to deal with an educational emergency through adoption and appropriate use of technological solutions.Collaboration between school and families proves to be a key factor for dealing with emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, support for teaching data literacy in social studies is provided through the design of a pedagogical support system informed by participatory design sessions with both pre‐service and in‐service social studies teachers. It provides instruction on teaching and learning data literacy in social studies, examples of standards‐based lesson plans, made‐to‐purpose data visualization tools and minimal manuals that put existing online tools in a social studies context. Based on case studies of eleven practicing teachers, this study provides insight into features of technology resources that social studies teachers find usable and useful for using data visualizations as part of standards‐ and inquiry‐based social studies instruction, teaching critical analysis of data visualizations and helping students create data visualizations with online computing tools. The final result, though, is that few of our participating teachers have yet adopted the provided resources into their own classrooms, which highlights weaknesses of the technology acceptance model for describing teacher adoption. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Data literacy is an important part of social studies education in the United States.Most teachers do not teach data literacy as a part of social studies.Teachers may adopt technology to help them teach data literacy if they think it is useful and usable.What this paper adds Educational technology can help teachers learn about data literacy in social studies.Social studies teachers want simple tools that fit with their existing curricula, give them new project ideas and help students learn difficult concepts.Making tools useful and usable does not predict adoption; context plays a large role in a social studies teachers' adoption.Implications for practice and/or policy Designing purpose‐built tools for social studies teachers will encourage them to teach data literacy in their classes.Professional learning opportunities for teachers around data literacy should include opportunities for experimentation with tools.Teachers are not likely to use tools if they are not accompanied by lesson and project ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A discussion forum is a valuable tool to support student learning in online contexts. However, interactions in online discussion forums are sparse, leading to other issues such as low engagement and dropping out. Recent educational studies have examined the affordances of conversational agents (CA) powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically support student participation in discussion forums. However, few studies have paid attention to the safety of CAs. This study aimed to address the safety challenges of CAs constructed with educational big data to support learning. Specifically, we proposed a safety‐aware CA model, benchmarked with two state‐of‐the‐art (SOTA) models, to support high school student learning in an online algebra learning platform. We applied automatic text analysis to evaluate the safety and socio‐emotional support levels of CA‐generated and human‐generated texts. A large dataset was used to train and evaluate the CA models, which consisted of all discussion post‐reply pairs (n = 2,097,139) by 71,918 online math learners from 2015 to 2021. Results show that while SOTA models can generate supportive texts, their safety is compromised. Meanwhile, our proposed model can effectively enhance the safety of generated texts while providing comparable support. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Online discussion forums have been plagued by a lack of interaction among students due to factors such as expectations to receive no response and perceptions of topic irrelevance which lead to low motivation to participate.AI‐based conversational agents can automatically support students' interactions in online discussion forums at a large scale, and their generated responses can be human‐like, contextually coherent and socio‐emotionally supportive.Unsafe discourse exchanges between students and conversational agents can be dangerous as identity attacks, aggravation and bullying behaviours embedded in discourses can disrupt students' knowledge inquiry and negatively influence student motivation and engagement. However, few educational studies have paid attention to the safety of conversational agents.What this paper adds This study proposes and synthesized strategies to build AI‐based conversational agents that automatically support online discussions with safe and supportive discourses.This study reveals the relationship between discourse safety and social support, suggesting supportive discourses can also be unsafe.This study enriches the literature on educational conversational agents by synthesizing a conceptual framework on discourse safety and social support, and by proposing concrete algorithmic strategies to improve the safety of conversational agents.Implications for practice and/or policy Researchers and practitioners can adopt strategies in this study such as generation control, open‐sourced models and public API services to evaluate students' discourse safety for early intervention or modify existing conversational agents to be safety‐aware.Practitioners can utilize the proposed conversational agent to automatically support students both safely and socio‐emotionally at a large scale.Practitioners should be cautious when examining social support with automatic analysis, as not all supportive texts are safe. While unsafe texts can provide emotional support, it does not justify their appropriateness in a learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning is currently adopted by educational institutions worldwide to provide students with ongoing education during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Even though online learning research has been advancing in uncovering student experiences in various settings (i.e., tertiary, adult, and professional education), very little progress has been achieved in understanding the experience of the K‐12 student population, especially when narrowed down to different school‐year segments (i.e., primary and secondary school students). This study explores how students at different stages of their K‐12 education reacted to the mandatory full‐time online learning during the COVID‐19 pandemic. For this purpose, we conducted a province‐wide survey study in which the online learning experience of 1,170,769 Chinese students was collected from the Guangdong Province of China. We performed cross‐tabulation and Chi‐square analysis to compare students' online learning conditions, experiences, and expectations. Results from this survey study provide evidence that students' online learning experiences are significantly different across school years. Foremost, policy implications were made to advise government authorises and schools on improving the delivery of online learning, and potential directions were identified for future research into K‐12 online learning. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Online learning has been widely adopted during the COVID‐19 pandemic to ensure the continuation of K‐12 education.Student success in K‐12 online education is substantially lower than in conventional schools.Students experienced various difficulties related to the delivery of online learning.What this paper adds Provide empirical evidence for the online learning experience of students in different school years.Identify the different needs of students in primary, middle, and high school.Identify the challenges of delivering online learning to students of different age.Implications for practice and/or policy Authority and schools need to provide sufficient technical support to students in online learning.The delivery of online learning needs to be customised for students in different school years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]