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The 13th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention (IMETC2019) was held between August 25th and August 28th of 2019 at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The Centre for Instructional Technology and Multimedia (CITM) of USM had successfully embarked in a journey of co-organising IMETC2019 with the Malaysian Ministry of Education, the Malaysian Educational Technology Association (META), and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). This special section of I TechTrends i consists of the papers selected as "best paper" from each of the four IMETC2019 conference tracks: General Issues in Education, Technological, Curriculum Development, and Instructional Design. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on unpacking the United States Air Force's (USAF) instructional system development (ISD) model as it evolved over time to its present form. In post-World War II training, the USAF was a leader in the study and use of systematic instructional design procedures, with its early efforts often coinciding with the work of the Department of Audio-Visual Instruction (DAVI) and in collaboration with the scholars who shaped both military training and the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). This paper draws from the original research on USAF training design as well as official USAF publications, inspection reports, DAVI and AECT publications, and the Air Training Command's Instructors' Journal. This study revealed that three distinct ISD models have existed in ISD literature. As a framework for examining the evolution of the USAF ISD model, the seven attributes on idealized design posited by Smith and Boling (Educational Technology,49(4), 3–17, 2009) were used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly the widespread use of ChatGPT in higher education, necessitates a profound exploration of effective communication strategies. This paper addresses the critical role of prompt development as a skill essential for university instructors engaging with ChatGPT. While emphasizing the practical implications for higher education, the study introduces a novel two-layered AI prompt formula, considering both components and elements. In methodology, the research synthesizes insights from existing models and proposes a tailored approach for ChatGPT, addressing its unique characteristics and the contextual elements within higher education. The results highlight the formula's flexibility and potential applications in diverse fields, from syllabus planning to assessment. Moreover, the study identifies limitations inherent in ChatGPT, emphasizing the need for instructors to exercise caution in its usage. In conclusion, the paper underscores the evolving landscape of AI in education, envisaging specialized versions of ChatGPT for academic settings and advocating for the proactive adoption of ethical frameworks in the use of AI in higher education. This study serves as a foundational contribution to the discourse on effective AI communication in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the roots of the Association for Media and Technology in Education (AMTEC) in Canada and its connections to global educational technology and media organizations including the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). The AMTEC History Project, which is preserving memories, voices and documents related to the field of educational technology in Canada, celebrates the 50th anniversary of AMTEC in the context of the 100th anniversary of AECT. Generations of AECT leaders had a substantive influence on the history of AMTEC. Interviews with memory keepers as part of this history project revealed the importance of communication, collaboration, networking, persistence, and a learning mindset for those engaged as educational technologists, as they navigated change. Students, academics, and practitioners of educational technology may benefit from lessons learned by the Canadian pioneers of multi-media instruction and research collected in this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I focus on teachers' lived experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, I explore the emotional impact the abrupt shift to online teaching had on teachers' work and life throughout the various phases of the lockdown. I develop my argument by analyzing teachers' everyday work, using a qualitative approach, and constructing a small-scale empirical study. Philosophically, my attempt is phenomenologically developed and is framed by Heidegger's and Arendt's thoughts. Methodologically, my attempt falls within an emerging research horizon that combines educational philosophy with empirical research. Drawing from research data, I argue that teachers' experience bears witness to a deep modification of the schooling space-time, namely, the horizon in which the very perception of students, themselves, and teaching arise. In the case of teachers experiencing discomfort, fear, and even angst, the totality of their gestures and emotions was, as it were, swallowed by this unknown and disquieting horizon; teachers in distress were experiencing the collapse of any projecting without being freed by projecting itself. In the case of teachers experiencing feelings of fulfillment and even joy, a different horizon was allowed to emerge. Such a different space-time, rather than producing a sense of distance and alienation, created a new intimacy and nearness, which allows for a different attitude toward the topics and the educational community. Students became more sensitive, susceptible to transformation, and open to what was being said. At the same time, relationships were caught in a new web of meanings that transcended them, thus giving birth to an educational experience in its own right. I conclude with some remarks about the building of the educational community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to the original papers, the issue includes some of the regular columns you expect to see in I TechTrends i . The January 2023 issue of the journal is a special issue from the Organizational Training and Performance Division of Association of Educational Communications and Technology. Volume 66, issue 6 of I TechTrends i is a special issue from the Technology Integrated Learning Division of Association of Educational Communications and Technology. [Extracted from the article]

Learning to be tolerant is important in multiethnic societies. Based on the premises that tolerance is built through dialogue and that nowadays much informal learning takes place in social media, this paper explores the reactions of young people when they receive racist memes through social media, and how they dare to express their opinions(or not). Responses of undergraduate students to messages presented in print and Facebook were compared using quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative analyses took into consideration their perception of each medium, their self-efficacy, and the amount of invested mental effort. Results showed significant differences in perceptions of each medium, as well as the percentage of students who chose not to respond (26.8% did not respond in Facebook). Using qualitative techniques, a variety of strategies to express or avoid opinions were identified. In order to confirm the identified strategies and investigate further reasons for not responding, the study was replicated using a class discussion forum simulating an instant messaging group. Reasons for keeping silent were categorized. Discussion of the results found refers to the need of including the interaction of sociocultural variables with cognition and media affordances in the theory of media research, as well as to the implications for the learning of values and interculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focused on the improvement of student's assessment feedback and learning satisfaction in the higher education institutions in Oman using the E-learning system of University Communication Model (UCOM). During the study, an E-learning model was conceptualized using coursework program instruction, testing academic performance, faculty experience, and assessment method as the determinants. The aim of this work is to develop a 'University Communication (UCOM) model for improving the student's assessment method and evaluating their academic performance. In the first phase of this study, a systematic review of the existing literature was carried out to determine the suitable quantitative and qualitative criteria of feature selection, like student satisfaction and degree of learning. The next phase involved the generation of an E-learning model for assessing the feedback and approval processes. The final step is the design of the evaluation forms that can measure the satisfaction of the technology and enhance the assessment method. In this study, surveys were distributed to the students of Al-Buraimi University College (BUC), Oman, to assess their level of satisfaction in using a UCOM model which served as a link between them and the University. The results were tested for accuracy, reliability, and validity using smart PLS. The findings of this paper assisted positively in four of the deployed factors and approved the capability of the developed model in improving student's assessment feedback using E-learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preservation, discussion, and analysis of the history and trends of educational communications and technology are more important than ever. After the last updated record of the AECT archive was published 25 years ago, Clark-Stallkamp and Ames' article offers an updated account of the AECT archives and its holdings. [Extracted from the article]

Over the past few decades, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has received increasing worldwide attention. We conducted an integrative review and word cloud analysis to reveal implicit connections among core CSCL papers, offering direction for future research. The analysis was based on a sample of 100 fundamental CSCL papers, which were among the top 690 most cited papers in subsequent studies. These papers were sourced from the Embase, Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL, WoS, and MEDLINE databases. We found that the majority of CSCL research focused on collaborative learning and its applications, with an emphasis on using technology to facilitate computer-mediated communication in educational environments. Through further examination of frequently co-cited links in subsequent studies, it was found that research in CSCL has diversified beyond its traditional focus. One example of such a divergence is the investigation of computer-supported learning evaluation environments. Our findings have important implications for future research and the practical applications of CSCL in interdisciplinary education. As such, they may serve as a point of reference for researchers, educators, and policymakers. We also propose potential directions for future research based on our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the philosophical and methodological variations of phenomenological research methods and their role in the field of educational communication and technology (ECT). Phenomenology is a qualitative research methodology concerned with investigating phenomena as they manifest through lived-experiences. The unit of analysis resides in the intentional meanings of phenomena. Analysis of those intentionalities, however, has evolved over the past century; phenomenologists have viewed intentionality as something that is: described (transcendental phenomenology), interpreted (hermeneutic phenomenology), or resists centering and embraces contexts, situations, and the partial (post-intentional phenomenology) (Vagle 2014, 2018). To conduct phenomenological research, then, one must be able to articulate the specific philosophical underpinnings associated with each approach and the suitability of each approach. To support researchers and practitioners in the field, this paper explicates philosophical and methodological variations of more prominent phenomenological research approaches as well as related issues and affordances. In doing so, this paper offers scholars in the field various perspectives in which to ground future phenomenological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science communication, as a hybrid, involves the concomitant reading of graphical representations and natural language. A scientifically literate individual should be able to make sense of both sites of information in relation to one another. In this paper, we explore the ability of 61 students from a highly rated, all-girls Catholic School to make sense of inconsistent graphical and textual data and examine their interpretations within 3 distinct settings: individually on a paper assessment, in a one-to-one interview with the researchers, and through classroom conversation. This study indicates that (1) sense-making was difficult for even advanced students and (2) different interpretations of text evolved within each of the 3 settings. Many students initially privileged natural language over the data represented on the graph and sought ways to explain how the incorrect description could somehow be construed as accurate. Although these students could successfully complete school assignments related to graphs, their skills in reading authentic, real-world science communication was limited. We recommend that teachers invite discussion of various semiotic forms rather than scaffold for correctness. Students have learned to do schoolwork, but they are much less able to engage critically in real-world science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welcome to the fifth issue of TechTrends for 2019. The original papers in the issue begin McKeown and McKeown's article in which they propose a model to describe three barriers deaf students might encounter in an online learning. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the recognized importance of emotion in learning (Kim and Pekrun in Handbook of research on educational communications and technology, 4th ed., Springer, pp. 65–75, 2014), instructional material design research primarily focuses on cognition, tending to ignore the affective dimension (Brom et al. in Educ Res Rev 25:100–119, 2018). To understand the complex phenomenon of how students' emotional responses to instructional materials are formed, this qualitative thematic study explored factors thought to affect their visual perceptions of instructional materials by utilizing the general framework of approach and avoidance motivation. Four sets of printed instructional materials were prepared, each with the same content drawn from finite mathematics, but with different visual designs. A total of 25 students were invited to a laboratory room and asked to select and study one out of the four sets of materials. The entire process was observed, and students were interviewed to share their experiences. The results showed that students selected instructional materials based on their holistic impression of the materials and on their individual expectations as shaped by previous experiences. For example, students who had math anxiety selected materials that did not look like math textbooks, although opinions regarding which materials did or did not look like textbooks were diverse due to different material experiences. While existing studies tend to be deterministic about the attractiveness of visual materials (e.g., Plass et al. in Learn Instruct 29:128–140, 2014), the present study confirms that there is no universal design that elicits comfortable experiences for everyone. This paper concludes with sets of guidelines and methods to accommodate students' diverse visual perceptions, which is critical for enhancing learning as a holistic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discuses various research papers within the issue on topics including the integration of technology in research, the qualitative research in educational communications and the meta-analysis of blended technology in higher education.

She also provides foundational thoughts for the future of preparing teachers for distance (and in-person) teaching related to fostering teachers' instructional design skills and abilities to collaborate and work as part of a team of teachers with unified goals. As Barbour notes in his column, the history of K-12 distance learning predates the pandemic by over a century, providing teachers and teacher educators with plenty of opportunities to prepare for distance learning. As a result of increased access to technology and technological innovations designed to support teaching and learning, P-12 contexts have changed dramatically over the last decade. [Extracted from the article]

This paper discusses the importance of considering bilingual learners' non-linguistic forms of communication for understanding their mathematical thinking. In particular, I provide a detailed analysis of communication involving a pair of high school bilingual learners during an exploratory activity where a touchscreen-based dynamic geometry environment (DGE) was used. The paper focuses on the word-use, gestures and dragging actions in student-pair communication about calculus concepts as they interacted with a touchscreen-based DGE. Findings suggest that the students relied on gestures and dragging as non-linguistic features of the mathematical discourse to communicate dynamic aspects of calculus. Moreover, by examining the interplay between language, gestures, dragging and diagrams, it was possible to identify bilingual learners' competence in mathematical communications. This paper raises questions about new forms of communication mobilised in dynamic, touchscreen environments, particularly for bilingual learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, qualitative research has emerged as a widely accepted alternative to the quantitative paradigm for performing research in educational communications and technology. As the new paradigm has evolved, it has spawned a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques that have both increased its potential contributions and engendered confusion about how to work effectively within its scope. This paper reviews the criteria and procedures for designing and implementing basic qualitative studies that are credible, meaningful, and useful. It discusses the reasons for using a qualitative approach, how to frame qualitative research questions appropriately, considerations in choosing and applying data-collection techniques appropriately, techniques for analyzing qualitative data systematically and effectively, and ways to present credible results and draw valid conclusions from qualitative data. Following a few basic principles related to each of these topics can help new researchers in particular begin to become adept users of the basic methods and techniques of the qualitative paradigm. Following up on the paper's discussion of data-analytic tools and suggestions for additional reading can help both new and experienced researchers expand their knowledge of this important research tradition and become fluent in using it to gain a deep and detailed understanding of how to design and use technologies to support learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological theories and design models can inform and guide the design decisions of instructional designers. As suggested by Merrill ([18]), Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) is "using scientific principles to invent instructional design procedures and tools" (p.5). This paper aims to consider these two different views from LDT history by reviewing representative research and designs from three eras: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. His research and instructional design style reflect his understanding of LDT research as finding generalizable behavior laws and using them as formulas to design instruction that leads to the expected behavioral responses. [Extracted from the article]

As technologies continue to develop and evolve, it is imperative that instructional technologists, learning scientists, and educators involved with examining learning affordances of emerging technologies investigate the potential of innovative environments to promote and facilitate learning. This paper, as such, will describe a newly developed immersive, mixed-reality learning environment at Virginia Tech. The Mirror Worlds project, a cutting edge mixed-reality virtual world will be described in terms of the potential for this type of environment to engage participants in authentically situated social and embodied learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of subject matter learning with reading and writing skills takes place in multiple ways. Students learn to read, interpret, and write texts in the discipline-relevant genres. However, writing can be used not only for the purposes of practice in professional communication, but also as an opportunity to reflect on the learned material. In this paper, we address a writing intervention - Utility Value (UV) intervention - that has been shown to be effective for promoting interest and retention in STEM subjects in laboratory studies and field experiments. We conduct a detailed investigation into the potential of natural language processing technology to support evaluation of such writing at scale: We devise a set of features that characterize UV writing across different genres, present common themes, and evaluate UV scoring models using essays on known and new biology topics. The automated UV scoring results are, we believe, promising, especially for the personal essay genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Betty's Brain is an open-ended learning environment in which students learn about science topics by teaching a virtual agent named Betty through the construction of a visual causal map that represents the relevant science phenomena. The task is complex, and success requires the use of metacognitive strategies that support knowledge acquisition, causal map construction, and progress monitoring. Previous research has established that middle school students struggle at such tasks without proper scaffolding and feedback. In Betty's Brain, this feedback is provided by Betty and Mr. Davis, another virtual agent designed to provide guidance and suggestions as students work. This paper discusses our implementation of contextualized conversational (CC) feedback, and then presents the results of an experimental study exploring the effects of this feedback in two 8th-grade science classrooms. The results illustrate some advantages of the CC feedback in comparison with a baseline dialogue mechanism that presents similar strategies in a nonconversational, non-contextualized form. While both groups showed significant pre-to-post test learning gains, the difference in learning gains between the groups was not statistically significant. However, students who received CC feedback more often performed actions in accordance with the advised strategies, and they created higher quality causal maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore some key constructs and research themes initiated by Jim Kaput, and attempt to illuminate them further with reference to our own research. These ‘design principles’ focus on the evolution of digital representations since the early 1990s, and we attempt to take forward our collective understanding of the cognitive and cultural affordances they offer. There are two main organising ideas for the paper. The first centres around Kaput’s notion of outsourcing of processing power, and explores the implications of this for mathematical learning. We argue that a key component for design is to create visible, transparent views of outsourcing, a transparency without which there may be as many pitfalls as opportunities for mathematical learning. The second organising idea is Kaput’s notion of communication and the importance of designing for communication in ways that recognise the mutual influence of tools for communication and for mathematical expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with higher functioning autism (HFA) fail to translate their cognitive potential into real-life adaptation, and the severity of their symptoms is considerable despite their intellectual ability. This paper reports on a subsample from a larger study (A. Klin et al., in press) analyzed here by autism spectrum subtypes. It focuses on the nature of ability and disability in HFA and Asperger syndrome (AS) in relation to age and IQ. Participants included 32 individuals with autism and 35 with AS. Individuals with AS had significantly higher Verbal IQ scores and less symptomatology than individuals with autism, but their Vineland scores were equally impaired, highlighting the adaptive deficits in ASD regardless of classification. No relationship was found between adaptive functioning and symptom severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we draw on two research projects in South Africa to describe and discuss the language practices of teachers in primary multilingual mathematics classrooms. We focus particularly on code-switching – moving across languages and discourses. We situate the paper in the policy and practice environment of post-apartheid South African education in which code-switching is encouraged. Through our descriptions and discussion, we argue that while at a general political and pedagogical level it makes sense for teachers to encourage and use code-switching as a learning and teaching resource, this is not a straight forward matter. We argue that different English language infrastructures present primary mathematics teachers with different challenges for communicating mathematics. Furthermore, we show how the movement across mathematical discourses relates to movement between languages in classroom communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of what is intended by government curriculum specifications and advised by educational experts, the ICT competencies or skills taught and learned in and out of classrooms can vary considerably. In this paper, we explore how we can investigate the perceptions that individual teachers have of ICT as a subject, and how these and other factors may influence students' learning. We report small-scale multiple case study research which examines ICT teaching as an activity system and identifies contradictions within the teaching of ICT, highlighting issues concerning the object of the curriculum, the roles of the participants and the cultures of schools. We discuss how these contradictions may be resolved and the emerging variations in the teacher's perceptions of ICT as a subject and their practice within the classroom. Finally we discuss how these variations may impact on future suggested changes to the curriculum in Wales for ICT and Computing, particularly how differences in perception and practice between teachers may impact on pupil experience and the development of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report on the evaluation of an institutional social network (KINSHIP) whose aims were to foster an improved sense of community, enhance communication and serve as a space to model digital professionalism for students at King's College London, UK. Our evaluation focused on a pilot where students' needs with regard to the provision of a cross-institution platform and perceptions were examined. Empirical findings in this study project an advantage of KINSHIP compared to commercial social networks, as it is exclusively accessible by students and staff from the institution and mainly being used for academic purposes. Ongoing development and evolution of functionality in step with commercial platforms, improved accessibility via redeveloping the platform as a mobile application and addressing privacy concerns raised by the students about potential monitoring by staff or the institution would also be essential if such an institutional platform were to be a success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student autonomy has been an important object of study for mathematics educators for many years. Over time, framings of autonomy have moved from a focus on the individual to considerations of how an individual's autonomy is entangled in classroom-level interactions. What has been less closely studied is how classroom interactions provide uneven access to autonomy for individuals. This study uses a communicational perspective to clarify Piaget's intellectual autonomy and examine students' mathematical interactions. The findings describe barriers and supports to autonomous activity for three students. Students were prevented from engaging in autonomous activity when they were seen as less capable than others, when they felt the need to manage the activities of their peers, or when they focused on being seen as knowledgeable. In contrast, students acted with autonomy when they took up the teacher's request for explanations, noticed a contrast between their answer and the right answer, and worked on making connections across different representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how three widely used calculus textbooks in the U.S. realize the derivative as a point-specific object and as a function using Sfard's communicational approach. For this purpose, the study analyzed word-use and visual mediators for the limit process through which the derivative at a point was objectified, and word-use and visual mediators for the derivative process through which the derivative as a function was objectified. The analysis highlighted inconsistency in realizations of the limit process and object, and derivative process and object found in some instances, and implicit discussion on relations among different visual mediators. Specifically, the results of this study led to four observations about issues suggested by one or more of the textbooks: a) visual mediators of the initial and final objects, and the visual mediators of these processes were often inconsistent; b) transformations of visual mediators from initial object, through process, to final object were often implicit both in one visual mediator and across multiple visual mediators; c) visual mediators for the limit processes were sometimes disconnected from the initial and final objects, or the connections were not explicit; and d) realizations of both the derivative at a point and the derivative of a function were mediated with nearly identical symbols suggesting a possible difficulty with understanding the difference between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the second of two articles in this special issue that were developed following discussions of the Assessment Working Group at EDUsummIT 2013. The article extends the analysis of assessments of collaborative problem solving (CPS) to examine the significance of the data concerning this complex assessment problem and then for educational assessment more broadly. The article discusses four measurement challenges of data science or 'big data' in educational assessments that are enabled by technology: 1. Dealing with change over time via time-based data. 2. How a digital performance space's relationships interact with learner actions, communications and products. 3. How layers of interpretation are formed from translations of atomistic data into meaningful larger units suitable for making inferences about what someone knows and can do. 4. How to represent the dynamics of interactions between and among learners who are being assessed by their interactions with each other as well as with digital resources and agents in digital performance spaces. Because of the movement from paper-based tests to online learning, and in order to make progress on these challenges, the authors call for the restructuring of training of the next generation of researchers and psychometricians to specialize in data science in technology enabled assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much contemporary educational literature exhorts teachers, at all educational levels, to undertake continuous self-reflection on their teaching practices. However, at pre-service university level, many student teachers do not appear to understand the concept very deeply. Teacher educators and student teachers could benefit from knowing more about the characteristics and scope of student teachers' reflective competencies. This paper explores the competencies identified by primary school student teachers in their abilities to self-reflect on their own teaching capacities during practice teaching. Some 166 student teachers each wrote a 1500-word essay focusing on their reflective competencies. These essays were subjected to a Narrative Content Analysis using a modified version of Bain et al's. theoretical framework, with six components containing 19 levels of reflection. The results show that most of these student teachers were able to reflect in terms of reporting, responding, and relating, but were unable to do so in terms of reasoning, reconstructing, and representing reflection. Females generally performed better except in terms of responding, where males were more likely to respond in terms of significant aspects of teaching the incident or issue, to make judgments about the incident or issue, or to pose questions or identify problems. These outcomes have implications for teacher educators and pre-service students in terms of developing higher quality self-reflections about teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the educative power of an experienced mathematics teacher educator-researcher (MTE-R) who displayed his insights and strategies in teacher professional development (TPD) programs. To this end, we propose a framework by first conceptualizing educative power based on three constructs-communication, reasoning, and connection-and then we extend the conceptualization with another two dimensions: the reciprocal facilitator-learner relationships involving educators, teachers, and students, as well as a bridge between research and practice. Based on both self-study and case-study approaches, we further elaborate features specific to the MTE-R's educative power which includes communication using an approach of creating educative phenomenology, reasoning by mapping teachers' ideas onto emergent models to solve problems in educative challenges, and connection between research and practice by coordination. In particular, the core of the educative power that supported the MTE-R to initiate at-the-moment actions was his insights into the essence of mathematics, and the learning of students and teachers. We believe that the conceptual framework in this study offers a powerful tool that could guide the analyses of educative power, especially for those studies related to the initiation of at-the-moment actions and the implementation of TPD programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars from diverse fields and research traditions agree that the conceptual framework is a critically important component of disciplined inquiry. Yet, there is a pronounced lack of shared understanding regarding the definition and functions of conceptual frameworks, which impedes our ability to design effective research and mentor novice researchers. This paper adopts John Dewey's instrumental view of theory to discuss the prevalent definitions of a conceptual framework, outline its key functions, dispel the popular misconceptions regarding conceptual frameworks, and suggest strategies for developing effective conceptual frameworks and communicating them to the consumers of research. Examples of hypothetical and existing empirical studies in the field of educational technology are used to illustrate the analysis. It is argued in this article that conceptual frameworks should be viewed as an instrument for organizing inquiry and creating a compelling theory-based and data-driven argument for the importance of the problem, rigor of the method, and implications for further development of theory and enhancement of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial calls for the submission of replication studies, meta-analyses, and reports of large-scale impact studies to any section of ETR&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a special issue of the journal TechTrends, organized by guest editors Drs. John H. Curry and Jin Joy Mao. The issue includes various papers and regular columns, as well as an editorial on the topic of generative artificial intelligence in instructional design and assessment. The article also mentions the passing of Professor Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer, a respected figure in educational research and instructional design. Additionally, the article announces a transition in leadership for TechTrends, with the current Editor-in-Chief stepping down to explore new professional opportunities. The article expresses gratitude to those who have supported the journal and expresses confidence in its future success under new leadership. [Extracted from the article]

This paper introduces an empirical study that examines how teachers evaluate pupils' responses. The study draws on research undertaken at four secondary schools in the Czech Republic. It transpires that feedback has a stable position in the structure of communication; however, it is used only to verify pupils' responses and not to elaborate them. An important feature of feedback is its implicitness and near-zero content value resulting from the teachers' preferences to avoid explicit evaluative comments. This type of feedback is not in accordance with the concepts of dialogical education that currently dominate the field of the theory of educational communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer-supported collaborative learning has an unexploited potential of becoming an effective learning method for pupils with intellectual disabilities. This paper aims at showing how some specific requirements of this target group may be met by structuring a learning situation with the help of floor control, which restricts the opportunities of a learning dyad to act simultaneously within the learning environment. It was expected that floor control could improve communication between pupils with intellectual disabilities by explicitly structuring and restricting activities in the learning environment and making it necessary for the pupils to communicate. To examine if floor control really supports the collaboration process in the hypothesized way, two different versions of a CSCL environment were implemented and compared. The results revealed improved task-related communication and a higher quality of interaction outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project explores the impacts of emojis on students' impressions when used in a course welcome email. We adopt a 4 × 3 factorial design to determine how different emojis (i.e., , ,) impact students' impressions of credibility, immediacy, and liking. Data from students (N = 368) indicates emoji choice does impact impressions. Consistently, instructors' emoji use resulted in decreased perceived competence and trustworthiness but increased perceived caring, immediacy, and liking. Findings have implications for instructors who engage in technologically-mediated out-of-class communication and want to strengthen early student-instructor relationships. Limitations and future directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the diversity of university mathematics teachers' perspectives and experiences in relation to the secondary-tertiary transition (STT). Data for this study consist of responses of 310 university mathematics teachers from 30 countries to a survey. The survey design and data analysis are informed by an adaptation of a theory of improvement for education and by four idealized approaches for improving STT as identified in the literature: jump-oriented, enculturation-oriented, diversity-oriented, and cross-community-oriented. We characterize the diversity of perspectives and experiences in the data and examine ideas for future projects in light of these four approaches. We conclude that while jump-oriented approaches for improving STT are still the most prevalent, in part due to a persistent perspective of STT as a "deficit," university mathematics teachers' discourse on STT is becoming more diverse and nuanced. We find it particularly promising that participants' suggestions for future action are aligned with the four approaches, and most notably, with the cross-community approach expressing the emergent need for greater communication between the secondary and tertiary mathematics education communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to update readers of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology's (AECT) journal "TechTrends" on how the Book of Problems (BOP) initiative continues to advance, so as to allow interested researchers, policy makers and practitioners to join the community and contribute to its work. The BOP, an initiative of the Learning Development Institute (LDI), has evolved into an on-going dialogue that provides testimony to key concerns and challenges that face humanity today. The BOP event at Anaheim, California was more than just a workshop for the invited members of the BOP community, Both AECT and LDI were interested in broadening the scope of conversation beyond the group that had already been involved. To that effect, the six-hour workshop was followed, the next day, by an open dialogue session for interested conference attendees at large.

Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using (adapted) scientific publications, some for secondary education, but none of these strategies focused specifically on scientific argumentation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a strategy for teaching pre-university students to read unadapted primary scientific literature, translated into students' native language, based on a new argumentation analysis framework. This framework encompasses seven types of argumentative elements: motive, objective, main conclusion, implication, support, counterargument and refutation. During the intervention, students studied two research articles. We monitored students' reading comprehension and their opinion on the articles and activities. After the intervention, we measured students' ability to identify the argumentative elements in a third unadapted and translated research article. The presented framework enabled students to analyse the article by identifying the motive, objective, main conclusion and implication and part of the supports. Students stated that they found these activities useful. Most students understood the text on paragraph level and were able to read the article with some help for its vocabulary. We suggest that primary scientific literature has the potential to show students important aspects of the scientific process and to learn scientific vocabulary in an authentic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis in discussions on science education on the potential and advantages of stories and narratives in teaching situations. From this, one might conclude that simply starting to use stories in science classrooms is a good thing, per se. Yet, as I will argue in my paper, things do not appear to be that easy. From my understanding, it is necessary to select the stories to be told in teaching situations with care - and also to reject those stories which are not to be told. With respect to such a selection, different criteria can be employed, depending on the aims of the instructional unit. In doing so, my criteria for selection will be based on an education which does not focus solely on the communication of scientific knowledge but which emphasizes relevant topics from the nature of science for structuring the teaching. With this intention, one can identify constructions of narratives that are misleading with respect to the nature of science and which may lead to an inappropriate understanding of science and scientific practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this information age, the capacity to perceive structure in data, model that structure, and make decisions regarding its implications is rapidly becoming the most important of the quantitative literacy skills. We build on Kaput’s belief in a Science of Need to motivate and direct the development of tasks and tools for engaging students in reasoning about data. A Science of Need embodies the utility value of mathematics, and engages students in seeing the importance of mathematics in both their current and their future lives. An extended example of the design of tasks that require students to generate, test, and revise models of complex data is used to illustrate the ways in which attention to the contributions of students can aid in the development of both useful and theoretically coherent models of mathematical understanding by researchers. Tools such as Fathom are shown as democratizing agents in making data modeling more expressive and intimate, aiding in the development of deeper and more applicable mathematical understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of mathematical reference fields has substantially evolved with the advent of new types of digital technologies enabling students greater access to understanding the use and application of mathematical ideas and procedures. We analyze the evolution of symbolic thinking over time, from static notations to dynamic inscriptions in new technologies. We conclude with new perspectives on Kaput’s theory of notations and representations as mediators of constructive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In common with universities in the United Kingdom, Canada and NewZealand, increasing numbers of Australian universities have established offshore education partnerships, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. More than one-third of international students currently enrolled in Australian university courses study at a campus in their home country or somewhere other than in Australia (IDP 2002). Suchpartnerships, also assumed under the rubric of ‘transnational education’ and ‘franchising’, add additional challenges, complexities and risks to the roles of international education managers and administrators. Using convergent interviews and case studies, this paper identifies and examines the critical success factors for the successful establishment and development of relationships between Australian universities and their international partners. Critical among these are the development of effective communication structures and frameworks, the building of mutual trust, and the encouragement and demonstration of commitment between relationship partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this naturalistic design-research study, we tracked 172,417 learning journeys of students who were interacting with an online resource, the Indiana University Plagiarism Tutorials and Tests (IPTAT) at https://plagiarism.iu.edu. IPTAT was designed using First Principles of Instruction (FPI; Merrill in Educ Technol Res Dev 50:43–59, 2002, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02505024; First principles of instruction: identifying and designing effective, efficient, and engaging instruction, Wiley, New York, 2013; M. David Merrill's First Principles of Instruction, Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Washington, 2020). Students who used IPTAT were mostly from university and advanced high school courses taught in 186 countries and territories. Instructors expected their students to pass one of trillions of difficult Certification Tests (CT) provided through IPTAT. Each CT assessed student ability to classify samples of writing as word-for-word plagiarism, paraphrasing plagiarism, or no plagiarism—when given original source materials. In 51,646 successful learning journeys, students who were initially nonmasters and who later achieved mastery had viewed, on average, 89 IPTAT tutorial webpages designed with FPI. In the 23,307 unsuccessful learning journeys, students who were nonmasters and who had not (yet) achieved mastery had viewed an average of 52 tutorial webpages designed with FPI. Analysis of Patterns in Time (Frick in American Educational Research Journal 27:180–204, 1990) and Bayesian analysis revealed that students were nearly 4 times more likely to pass a CT when they selected one or more parts of IPTAT instruction designed with FPI. These results support the instrumental value of First Principles of Instruction for design of online learning in a massive, open, online course (MOOC). These findings further demonstrate the value of an innovative approach to modern learning analytics, Analysis of Patterns in Time, when coupled with Bayesian reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various features within the issue including reflections from graduate students, entry on creativity, and professional ethics.