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Self-directed learning (SDL) is acknowledged as an effective language learning paradigm because learning a language is time-consuming. As language and literacy education is now embracing a more multimodal approach in writing instruction, teachers' multimodal technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) receives growing attention in language education. Based on a VR-supported L1 Chinese writing program, the present study collected and analyzed the VR courseware, lesson plans and student worksheets developed by a group of Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong. A coding scheme regarding multimodal TPACK for SDL was employed to assess the learning activities and to understand teachers' multimodal TPACK literacies in L1 Chinese writing instruction. The findings revealed that teachers were able to use VR to immerse students in an authentic environment to develop students' SDL ability and comprehension of nuanced socioemotional aspects of L1 Chinese writing. Nonetheless, there existed some limitations in the utilization of VR for teaching L1 Chinese writing which might be compensated for by pedagogical design. Moreover, teachers' pedagogical conception revealed their teaching was driven by syllabus requirements and focused on students' completion of writing, which might disregard the process of SDL in pedagogical implementation, and thus the process of collaborative knowledge building might be less developed. This study may contribute to the development of VR-based multimodal TPACK, which enhances multimodal lesson design for self-directed L1 writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology on Chinese students' willingness to communicate (WTC) in oral English and the development trajectories of their interactional features in a flipped EFL context. One hundred sixty undergraduates from a Chinese university participated in the 14-week quasi-experiment. Both groups were taught in a flipped fashion. The treatment group was required to use the ASR technology for oral practice in their pre-class self-learning, while the control group conducted their self-learning without the ASR technology. The results found that the ASR-based oral practice led to a significant between-group difference in students' WTC with teacher and class and WTC with non-Chinese, showing that the ASR technology may contribute to improving the Chinese students' WTC in oral English. Conversely, except for the between-group effect on negotiation for meaning, there was no significant difference between the two groups on the other measures of interactional features. Moreover, none of the interactional features of the students in the treatment group changed significantly over time, indicating a limited role of the ASR technology on Chinese students' interactional features. Discussions were conducted regarding the contradictory effects of the ASR technology on WTC and peer interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STEM education has been regarded as an important educational initiative for cultivating students' twenty-first century skills. The present work aimed to explore ways to promote students' twenty-first century skills through an integrated STEM-based curriculum. Specifically, we designed and implemented an 8-week crossover program of STEM and community service education. In this program, students learned about STEM domain knowledge and community service issues. They then applied the knowledge to solve authentic problems faced by Hong Kong community-housing residents from disadvantaged groups. A mixed-method approach was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in enhancing students' twenty-first century skills and attitudes, including (i) creative thinking, (ii) collaboration, (iii) perseverance, as well as their (iv) STEM career interests. The research participants were 121 secondary students from a government-subsidized school. The quantitative results showed that the participants' creative thinking, collaboration, and perseverance improved alongside their STEM career interests. These findings were further supported by the data gathered through focus-group interviews. This study provides theoretical and practical insights into the integration of STEM education with community service learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought disruptions and constraints to K-12 STEM education, such as the shortened classroom time and the restrictions on classroom interactions. More empirical evidence is needed to inform educators and practitioners which strategies work and which do not in the pandemic context. In response to the call for more empirical evidence and the need for cultivating responsible and competent 21st century citizens, we designed and implemented a transdisciplinary STEM curriculum during the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to facilitate the smooth delivery of the learning contents and authentically engage learners in the learning process, multi-model video approaches were employed considering the characteristics of three disciplines, STEM, social service, and writing, as well as learner diversity. Pre- and post-test results indicated that students’ transdisciplinary STEM knowledge improved significantly after completing the curriculum. The integration of STEM, social service, and writing disciplines promoted the growth of students’ empathy, interest, and self-efficacy. Consistent with the quantitative results, students responded in the interview that their STEM knowledge and empathy were both enhanced. Some implementation strategies introduced in the current study are also applicable when the standard teaching order is restored in the post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with the substantial interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and the major projects in STEM curriculum development around the world, efforts should be particularly made to increase the supply of STEM teachers through proper and effective teacher professional development. Although there have been a number of studies related to teacher professional development for individual subject training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, quality research on professional development for teachers to develop their capacity for adopting the integrative and cross-disciplinary approaches advocated in STEM education remains in its infancy. The theme of this special issue is two-fold: (a) to provide researchers and practitioners in STEM education with a scholarly platform for reflecting on what challenges and impediments STEM teachers have encountered, and (b) to exchange new theoretical and practical insights gained from empirical research on designing, enacting and evaluating professional development programmes for building teachers' capacity in STEM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the effects of using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology on oral complexity in a flipped English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course. A total of 160 undergraduates were enrolled in a 14-week quasi-experiment. The experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) were taught with a flipped approach, but the EG students needed to undertake an additional pre-class task with ASR technology. In each unit, all students' in-class task performance was recorded, based on which the metrics of oral complexity were coded and computed. A two-way between- and within-subjects repeated measures design was conducted to examine the effects of the group factor, the time factor and the group × time interaction effects. The results showed that the EG students performed statistically better than their counterparts in the CG on lexical complexity and syntactic complexity. Moreover, significant improvement in phrasal complexity was witnessed over time in both groups. Significant group × time interaction effects were witnessed on overall complexity or subordination complexity. The gradients of the EG trajectories of the two metrics were greater than those of the CG. However, on phrasal complexity, the interaction effect was not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing discussion among educators and researchers about harnessing the idea of gamification to enhance the current learning and teaching practices in school education. Leveraging the context-aware mobile technology and student-centred learning theories, we have developed a mobile application, Gamified Authentic Mobile Enquiry in Society (GAMES), to support students in conducting authentic outdoor enquiry-based learning in social humanities education. This paper reports the quasiexperimental study in which we evaluated the learning effectiveness of GAMES in terms of supporting students' knowledge construction, in comparison with the conventional outdoor enquiry-based learning approach. It involved a total of 559 Grade-10 students from top, middle, and bottom academic-banding schools. Results indicated that, compared to the conventional approach, GAMES had different degrees of positive effects on the high, moderate, and low academic-achieving participants. This study not only provides grounds for a wider adoption of GAMES in social humanities education, but also makes a contribution to empirical evidence in the field by designing, implementing and evaluating gamified mobile learning in authentic outdoor contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss gamification, game-based learning and learning performance.