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Although research has touted the value of making in educational settings, scant work has been done in formal school contexts utilizing quantitative methods. This could be attributed to the various challenges in integrating making in school settings. To fill in the gap, this study presents an approach to integrate making into science classes at the 3rd to 5th grade levels in a U.S. public school for four consecutive years (2015–2019). We examined the effect of the program on students' self-beliefs (self-efficacy, motivation, and self-concept) using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design. We also examined the effect of making on students' knowledge and skills using state testing data. Results suggest that when averaged across post school year surveys, students in maker classes (vs. control) reported higher self-efficacy beliefs in science and making as well as more interests in STEM-related careers. Moreover, over two school years, we observed that students in the control group experienced declines on some of our variables while our maker students did not. Data thereby speaks to the potential value and promise of integrating making into formal school settings. Practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to use augmented reality and hands-on activity with phonics cubes to create an augmented reality English learning system named the Rolling Alphabet-AR System to investigate its impact on English learning, flow experience, and English self-efficacy for sixth graders. This study adopted quasi-experimental research on 114 sixth graders from Taiwan, which comprised experimental and control groups. The experimental group used the Rolling Alphabet-AR System to learn, and the control group used flash cards and picture cards. Before and after the experiments, these two groups took the Phonics vocabulary, flow experience, and English self-efficacy scales as pre- and posttests. The study was conducted 7 times in 7 weeks for a total of 280 minutes. The pre- and posttest results were analysed by independent sample t tests in SPSS 20.0. Using the Rolling Alphabet-AR System in English learning positively impacts English learning effectiveness and flow experience for sixth graders. This study combined AR learning with manual operations to prove that this combination can effectively improve students' English learning results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many children fail to comprehend what they read because they do not monitor their understanding, which requires making accurate judgements of what they know and then employing repair strategies when comprehension fails. Relying on research from learning science and cognitive and developmental psychology, we developed the Word Knowledge e-Book (WKe-Book) to improve children's calibration of their word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge overall; skills which are associated with reading comprehension. The WKe-Book, which is read on a tablet computer, is a choose-your-own adventure book where choices require choosing between two rare words (e.g., cogitate vs. procrastinate). Depending on the word chosen, the story follows a different plot. There are also embedded comprehension questions where students receive immediate feedback with consequences for incorrect answers, such as being sent back to reread a few pages. In a randomized controlled trial, we tested whether students (N = 603 in 25 third through fifth grade classrooms in Arizona in the US) reading the WKe-Book would demonstrate improved word knowledge, strategy use, and word knowledge calibration. Classrooms were randomly assigned to read the WKe-Book immediately (treatment) or later (delayed-treatment control), and within classrooms, students were randomly assigned to either participate in a 15-minute weekly book club (book club treatment) or to read the WKe-Book independently with no book club (no book club control). Results revealed a significant treatment effect of the WKe-Book on students' word knowledge, word knowledge calibration, and strategy use, which predicted student performance on standardized reading comprehension and vocabulary measures. The effects were greater for students who participated in weekly book clubs compared to students in the no book club control. These findings suggest that the affordances offered by technology, which are unavailable in paper-based books, can support students' development of metacognition, including word knowledge calibration, strategy use, and word learning skills.

Abstract Understanding the emotional aspects of pedagogical approaches for primary-aged school children engaged in synchronous audio-led one-to-one online tuition is the focus of this qualitative research study. Data are drawn from the process evaluation element of a large randomized control trial of a 27-week, affordable online mathematics tuition intervention that involved 600 pupils spread across 64 schools in England. Focus groups and interviews conducted with pupils and school staff were used to investigate the pupils' emotional experiences of the mathematics intervention, with reference to the pupil–tutor relationship and the online environment. Our findings suggest that audio-led synchronous one-to-one online tuition provides variable and limited access to emotionally positive pupil–tutor relationships. Whilst our study largely supports the argument that synchronous technologies enhance the sense of communicating with a "real" person (social presence), we conclude that this does not necessarily have a positive effect. We found that the quality of social presence is contingent on the quality of the pupil–tutor relationship. This paper advances our understanding of social presence theory and highlights the need for program developers to facilitate, and tutors, to consider pupil-sensitive collaborative teaching approaches. Highlights • Synchronous 1-2-1 online tuition provided limited access to emotionally positive pupil–tutor relationships. • The emotional quality of the tutor–pupil relationship is interconnected with pupils' sense of their tutors as "real" people. • Social presence is dependent on the quality of the pupil–tutor interpersonal relationship. • Text-based technologies can alleviate emotional and social stress. • Pupil-sensitive collaborative teaching approaches can enhance the emotional and pedagogic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract An experimental study was conducted with 8th grade students (N = 41), ranging from 13 to 14 years old, whereby they solved first-degree equations using a step-based intelligent tutoring system. The aim of the study is to assess the training of the metacognitive knowledge monitoring ability carried out by an animated pedagogical agent integrated into the tutoring system. Students from the experimental group received metacognitive instructions from the agent, as well as some hints and feedback, whereas those from the control group received only hint-messages and feedback. Pretest and posttest sessions were carried out in order to collect the metacognitive knowledge monitoring ability indexes, as well as the students' performance grades for first degree equations solving. The results indicated that students who received metacognitive instruction presented greater improvement on metacognitive knowledge monitoring ability indexes. The study also monitored students' performance in solving equations during experimental sessions and found that those who received metacognitive instructions completed more equations correctly. This paper also discusses the implications of the results for the theory of metacognitive knowledge monitoring ability. Highlights • An agent that trains the knowledge monitoring ability is evaluated. • The agent's training can improve students' knowledge monitoring ability. • The agent's training can improve students' learning performance. • A correlation between students' performance and metacognitive ability is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exergaming enables players to engage in real-life games and sports by allowing them to move from one place to another. To investigate the effects of students' performance of sit-up exercises during an exergame, this study utilized the Fit-Fun exergame. In this game, the agent (a rabbit) is triggered to jump every time it receives a signal from the sensory detector embedded in the exercise belt. The game also enables players to compete against each other by performing sit-up exercises. This study focused on the relationship between emotions and performance in the exergame. It examined the connections between beliefs about exercise health, gameplay interest, competition anxiety, practicing attitude, and exergaming performance. Elementary school students aged 11–12 years old participated in this single-group quasi-experimental study. A total of 228 valid questionnaires were collected over a period of 6 weeks during a series of 6 practice sessions. The research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that exercise health belief was positively correlated with gameplay interest, but negatively correlated with competition anxiety. Additionally, practicing attitude was found to have a positive association with exergaming performance. Based on these findings, it is suggested that teachers can incorporate this exergame into synchronized competitions to motivate students to maintain their exercise routine by competing with their friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, this study aimed to explore whether arousing cognitive dissonance among game players can alter their attitudes and behavioral tendencies towards their favorite games. Sixty-six college students (Study 1) and 108 primary school students (Study 2) were randomly divided into a game-related dissonance group and a snack-related dissonance group to perform a short-term counter-attitudinal self-persuasion intervention task. The results suggested that college and primary school students in the game-related dissonance group experienced a significantly higher decrease in positive attitudes towards games and behavioral tendencies to continue playing games than those in the snack-related dissonance group. The participants' attitudinal change toward the games played a mediating role in the effects of the counter-attitudinal intervention on their changes in the behavioral tendency to continue playing the games. In addition, there was a significantly higher game-related dissonance-based intervention effect in the sample of college students than in the sample of primary students. The findings expanded the application of cognitive dissonance in the gaming field and provided implications for educational computer systems to change the attitudes and behaviors of students with excessive gaming behaviors. • Game-related dissonance led to higher internal changes towards games. • Snack-related dissonance led to smaller internal changes towards games. • Dissonance affected behavioral tendency changes by affected attitudinal changes. • Game-related dissonance intervention led to a better effect on internal changes among college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group design was used to examine the effect of a mobile gamification application on third and fourth grade students’ Spanish language achievement and student academic self-efficacy. In this study, the treatment group's Spanish language instruction was through the use ofDuolingo®, a computer and mobile app that uses gamification and adaptive learning technology to teach foreign languages. Students in the control group received their regularly scheduled English L1/Spanish L2 class learning activities. The study was 12 weeks in duration. Students were assessed with a 50-question, multiple-choice English to Spanish and Spanish to English pretest covering vocabulary and grammar to control for prior Spanish language achievement. Students were assessed with the Pattern of Adaptive Learning Scales’ (PALS) Academic Efficacy subscale to control for prior academic self-efficacy. The same two instruments were used as posttests. An analysis of covariance showed no significant difference in students’ Spanish achievement or in academic self-efficacy between students who usedDuolingo® and students who were taught with traditional face-to-face instruction. This demonstrates thatDuolingo® is a useful tool for teaching Spanish to elementary students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the seven years since the introduction of the tablet (Apple iPad) in 2010, the use of software for smart mobile devices has grown rapidly in popularity and has become a hotly debated issue in the field of education and child development. However, the rise in popularity of mobile applications (apps) mainly addressed to young children is not in line with a corresponding increase in their quality, as there is conflicting evidence about the real value and suitability of educational apps. The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-proclaimed educational apps for Greek preschoolers have been designed in accordance with developmentally appropriate standards to contribute to the social, emotional and cognitive development of children in formal and informal learning environments. The study results were discouraging. The majority of the apps aimed to teach children the basics about numbers and letters. Overall, they were drill-and-practice-style, based on a low level of thinking skills, thereby promoting rote learning, and were unable to contribute to a deeper conceptual understanding of certain concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, eye movement recordings and comprehension tests were used to investigate children's cognitive processes and comprehension when reading illustrated science texts. Ten-year-old children (N = 42) who were beginning to read to learn, with high and low reading ability read two illustrated science texts in Chinese (one medium-difficult article, one difficult article), and then answered questions that measured comprehension of textual and pictorial information as well as text-and-picture integration. The high-ability group outperformed the low-ability group on all questions. Eye movement analyses showed that both group of students spent roughly the same amount of time reading both articles, but had different methods of reading them. The low-ability group was inclined to read what seemed easier to them and read the text more. The high-ability group attended more to the difficult article and made an effort to integrate the textual and pictorial information. During a first-pass reading of the difficult article, high- but not low-ability readers returned to the previous paragraph. The low-ability readers spent more time reading the less difficult article and not the difficult one that required teachers' attention. Suggestions for classroom instruction are proposed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using robotics technologies in education is increasingly common and has the potential to impact students' learning. Educational robotics is a valuable tool for developing students' cognitive and social skills, and it has greatly attracted the interest of teachers and researchers alike, from pre-school to university. The purpose of this study is to understand the behavioral patterns of elementary students and teachers in one-to-one robotics instruction process. The participants were made up of 18 elementary school students and 18 preservice teachers. Quantitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis were used to analyze the student-teacher interactions. According to findings, the students' assembling bricks, sharing ideas and experiences, and the teachers' providing guidance and asking questions were the most frequent behaviors. Regarding behavioral sequences, the teachers' guidance significantly followed the students' behavior of expressing and sharing their ideas that followed the teachers’ questions. The students also significantly tended to play with robots that they themselves designed. Moreover, the teacher-student interactions were discussed in detail in terms of gender differences and difficulty level of robotics activities. The results of this study can be taken into consideration in the design of learning environments with robotics activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Analects of Confucius is an important course in the curriculum of Asian Studies in the Chinese community and around the world. Students have to learn a collection of the thoughts of Confucius which have shaped world history and the soul of China. However, educators have indicated that most students fail to understand its abstract thoughts, or even realize its spirit in their daily life experience. Meanwhile, with the advancements of technology, learning with computer games is currently a rapidly developing area of interest for researchers, teachers, material writers and application developers in the educational field. Several studies have shown that by properly incorporating learning contents into game scenarios, an experiential game-based learning approach might foster students' motivation to learn through experience. In addition, the experiential game-based approach is a learning method with great potential for motivating students and stimulating their willingness to engage in continuous and constant learning. Thus, in this study, an experiential digital game has been developed and presented to a fifth grade class learning the Analects of Confucius at an elementary school in Taipei city. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by situating the experimental group in an experiential game-based learning scenario, while the control group learned with a conventional technology-enhanced learning system. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach effectively enhanced the students' learning effects in terms of their learning motivation, deep learning strategy and acceptance of the technology. As a consequence, it is concluded that an experiential digital game-based learning approach can help students understand the conception and meaning of learning, which is important for them to become life-long learners with positive learning attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have indicated the importance of considering anxiety in language learning. They have also pointed out the potential of integrating learning content into gaming contexts. However, few have explored in-depth the learning processes in game-based learning environments while also taking students' learning anxiety into account. To address this issue, a problem-based English listening game was developed, and 77 ninth graders took part in the study by playing the game. A quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate students' learning achievement, learning motivation and English anxiety. In addition, progressive sequential analysis was employed to explore the learning behavioral patterns of students with different levels of English anxiety. According to the three learning phases, it was found that the gaming approach benefited the students' learning achievement and motivation. Moreover, the students with higher levels of English anxiety progressively performed more complex learning and gaming behaviors in the gaming context, and had better learning achievement than those with lower levels of anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modality effect occurs when people learn better from a combination of pictures and narration than from a combination of pictures and written text. Despite the strong empirical results in earlier studies, the modality effect has been less prominent in later studies of children in learner-paced settings. However, the generalizability of these results in practice may be limited because the studies included notable differences compared to a classroom context. The present study examined the modality effect in a learner-paced classroom context. In a within-subjects experiment, fifth graders learned from illustrated texts and videos and completed pre-, post-, and delayed tests on two science topics. The video group outperformed the illustrated text group in retention, delayed retention, cognitive load, and efficiency measures but there were no statistical differences in transfer. In both learning conditions, the cognitive load was moderate and did not correlate with any learning outcomes. The results suggest that while the modality effect can occur in a learner-paced classroom context, it may not be based on the avoidance of cognitive overload. Alternative explanations concerning the differences in settings and materials between classroom contexts and modality effect research are discussed. [Display omitted] • Modality effect (ME) has not been evident in learner-paced (LP) settings and children. • Fifth graders studied videos (V) and illustrated texts (IT) in a LP classroom context. • V led to better learning and less cognitive load than IT. • Unexpectedly, cognitive load did not affect learning outcomes in either condition. • The influences of the research settings and materials on ME are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situating learners in a context relevant to scientific phenomena enables them to acquire knowledge through experience, reflection, conceptualization, and practice, which is an important learning mode in science education. However, learners generally do not have opportunities to experience many scientific phenomena in the real world. Therefore, virtual learning environments (VLE) are becoming a frequently adopted technology to provide authentic learning contexts. In particular, spherical video-based learning environments (SVLE), which are a low-tech form of VLE, have attracted the attention of school teachers and educational technology researchers. Additionally, effective assessment methods, such as the two-tier-test, have been adopted to examine learners' performance during the virtual learning process. On the other hand, researchers have pointed out that lack of effective learning strategies may decrease the learning effects in a virtual learning context. Hence, this study integrated a graphic organizer into a two-tier test-based learning mode, in which the first-tier questions were declarative items with a short answer (e.g., the questions of where, what, and when), whereas the second-tier questions were more in-depth, deeper causal-type questions (e.g., the questions of why and how), in the contexts of SVLE. To verify the effectiveness of this learning approach, a graphic organizer-based two-tier test SVLE was developed; moreover, a quasi-experimental design was conducted in the "Mysteries of the Earth" unit of the sixth graders' natural science course. A total of 41 sixth graders from two classes, with an average age of 12, were recruited in this experiment. One class was assigned to be the experimental group adopting the graphic organizer-based two-tier test SVLE (GT-SVLE), while the other was the control group adopting the conventional two-tier test-based SVLE (CT-SVLE). All of the students learned with the SVLE using tablet computers. Based on the results, the GT-SVLE could better improve students' learning achievement than the CT-SVLE. Besides, according to behavioral analysis and interviews, the control group had significantly more learning behaviors of repeated reading of supplementary materials and repeated wrong answers, indicating that the proposed approach facilitated students' positive behaviors through observation and knowledge construction in SVLE, which helped them achieve the learning objectives. • A spherical video-based learning environments (SVLE) learning approach is proposed. • The approach advanced students' positive behaviors through observation and knowledge. • The approach was conducted with two-tier test strategy. • The study was conducted in the unit of the sixth graders' natural science course. • The study used concept map as a tool for researching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how students interact with artificial intelligence (AI) for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and what matters in AI-supported EFL learning. It was conducted in naturalistic learning settings, involving sixteen primary school students and lasting approximately three months. The students' usage data of an AI agent and their reflection essays about the interactions with the AI agent were analyzed using cluster analysis and epistemic network analysis based on the frameworks of community of inquiry and students' approaches to learning. The results suggest four clusters of students, each with its distinct way of interacting with AI for language learning. More importantly, the comparisons of the four clusters of students reveal that even in AI-supported learning, not everyone can benefit from the potential promised by AI. The deep approach to AI-supported learning may amplify the benefits of AI's personalized guidance and strengthen the sense of the human-AI learning community. Passively or mechanically following AI's instruction, albeit with high levels of participation, may decrease the sense of the human-AI learning community and eventually lead to low performance. This study contributes to and has implications for the educational implementation of AI, as well as the facilitation and graphical representation of learner-AI interactions in educational settings. • Community of inquiry and students' approaches to learning are used to analyze human-AI interactions. • Four clusters of students are identified with distinct ways of interacting with AI. • Not everyone can benefit from the potential promised by AI. • The deep learning approach may enhance the human-AI learning community, leading to high performance. • Passively or mechanically following AI's instruction may weaken the human-AI learning community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flipped classroom is a well-recognized learning mode that enables effective practice and interactions among teachers and students in the class by switching the in-class instructional time and out-of-class practicing time. However, owing to their lack of self-regulated competence, most students might fail to browse and comprehend the instructional materials out of class by themselves. In this paper, a self-regulated flipped classroom approach is proposed to help students schedule their out-of-class time to effectively read and comprehend the learning content before class, such that they are capable of interacting with their peers and teachers in class for in-depth discussions. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experimental design was employed in an elementary school Mathematics course. The experimental group students learned with the self-regulated flipped classroom approach, while the control group students learned with the conventional flipped classroom approach. The study was conducted using a quantitative approach. The instruments used were a performance test, and questionnaires of self-efficacy and self-regulation. The experimental results indicated that the post-test score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. It was also found that the higher self-regulation students showed significantly different learning achievements when learning with different approaches, while there was no significant difference between lower self-regulation students with the different learning approaches. Moreover, the experimental group showed significantly higher self-efficacy than the control group. In addition, the learning log analysis results further showed that, conforming to the objective of the self-regulated strategy, the students would determine the goals for the next learning phase based on their current performance. To sum up, the findings of this study indicate that integrating the self-regulated strategy into flipped learning can improve students’ self-efficacy as well as their strategies of planning and using study time, and hence they can learn effectively and have better learning achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Art education in public elementary schools is generally assigned fewer teaching hours and resources relative to other academic subjects, which has generated concerns about insufficient nurturing of artistic creativity and esthetic sensibility among elementary-school students. This study involved the development of a Web-based tool, named e Painting that facilitates art creation by elementary-school children. A preliminary experimental investigation examined the learning attitudes of students toward overall art creation immediately after using e Painting and the impact on their paper-based art creation at 4 weeks after free-choice learning of e Painting. The results revealed that the overall and paper-based art creation learning attitudes of students were both significantly enhanced after using e Painting. The improvement was greatest among males and those with initially poor-to-moderate learning attitudes toward paper-based art creation. The described results provide useful insights for the further development of teaching strategies and learning content based on the use of new technologies for enhancing art creation learning in schools. We have demonstrated that using the e Painting digital art creation tool as a supplemental free-choice resource is useful for learning traditional paper forms of art creation as well as for enhancing overall learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presented here explores the impact of two web-based applications (an interactive, multimedia literacy software and a digital process portfolio) on early elementary students' reading comprehension. Two studies were conducted during the 2010–2011 and the 2011–2012 school years, targeting 26 teachers from elementary schools (grades 1–2), and their students (N = 517) from six English school boards in Quebec, Canada. Analyses of covariance showed that students using both tools performed significantly better (p < .001) compared to controls in reading and written expression as measured by standardized tests. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Two experiments examined the effects of prior knowledge on learning from different compositions of multiple representations in a mobile learning environment on plant leaf morphology for primary school students. Experiment 1 compared the learning effects of a mobile learning environment presenting text and photos of plants on a tablet PC, either in combination with or without real plants in the physical environment. Results indicated that there were no interactions between prior knowledge and experimental condition. Students who learned with tablet PCs only outperformed students who additionally learned with real plants on a comprehension and an application test. In addition, high prior knowledge students outperformed low prior knowledge students on both tests. To investigate whether these effects were caused by the specific characteristics of the combination of photos of real plants and real plants, Experiment 2 compared the differential effects of prior knowledge on learning with the combination of texts, photos and real plants to a combination in which the photos were replaced by schematic hand drawings. Results indicated that both low and high prior knowledge students, who learned with the combination of texts, schematic hand drawings and real plants performed better on a comprehension and an application test. High prior knowledge students performed better on both tests. It is concluded that the number and type of representations used is critical for the effectiveness of mobile learning environments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although students could effectively search for web data with proper keywords and select web pages related to the studied core issue, however summarizing or organizing the retrieved information remains a difficult task for them. Concept mapping is known to be an effective knowledge construction tool for helping learners organize important concepts related to a core issue. To address the problem, an integrated concept mapping and web-based problem-solving environment, CM-Quest, has been developed; moreover, an experiment has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach on students' learning performance, learning satisfaction and cognitive load in an elementary school social studies course. The results show that the concept map-integrated approach can significantly enhance the students' web-based problem-solving performance, although the students showed lower degrees of technology acceptance and learning satisfaction in comparison with the conventional web-based problem-solving approach. Moreover, it is found that the students in the concept mapping group revealed higher cognitive loads than those in the control group, which could be the factor contributing to the lower technology acceptance degree and learning satisfaction. As a consequence, it is concluded that the integrated concept mapping and web-based problem-solving approach is helpful to students in guiding them to learn in a more effective way. On the other hand, it remains an open issue to find a suitable way of integrating concept maps into the learning process without introducing too much extra cognitive load so as to promote students' acceptance degree of using technology for better learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many recent studies have reported the benefits of educational computer games in promoting students' learning motivations. On the other hand, however, the effect of digital game-based learning in improving students' learning performance has been questioned. Several previous studies have reported that without properly integrating learning strategies into gaming scenarios, the effectiveness of educational computer games could be limited, or may be even worse than that of the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. In this study, a concept map-embedded gaming approach is proposed for developing educational computer games by integrating concept mapping as part of the gaming scenarios to help students organize what they have learned during the game-based learning process. Moreover, a role-playing game has been developed for an elementary school natural science course based on the proposed approach. From the experimental results, it is found that the concept map-embedded gaming approach can significantly improve the students' learning achievement and decrease their cognitive load. Moreover, the students who learned with the proposed approach revealed a significantly higher degree of perceived usefulness than those who learned with the conventional game-based learning approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Student academic performance and social competence are influenced positively by parent involvement; effective parent–teacher communication not builds parent reliance on a school, it enhances parent knowledge of raising children. As information technology develops rapidly, it is already a trend that e-communication is replacing traditional paper communication. Mobile phone messages could be a convenience tool to issue notices to parents and reduce conflicts due to negligence such as missing phone calls, forgotten alerts, etc. Therefore, this study investigates teacher behavior of adopting mobile phone messages as a parent–teacher communication medium by applying the TAM, C-TAM-TPB, and UTAUT models. The result posits that attitude should be treated as a mediator between perceived usefulness and behavior intention, even if the user perceives the new device is useful but does not hold a positive attitude toward the device. On the other hand, to most subjects, opinions from family and friends and expectations from superiors are important considerations when making decisions; those thoughts affect directly the intention to use the new system. The results also suggest that infrastructure maturity for mobile phone messaging improves intention to use, but actual use behavior relates to school policies, not teacher intention. To implement a messaging system successfully, authorities should provide inducements that not only attract teachers to use the system, but that foster positive attitudes toward the messaging system to further increase use intention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Spatial ability has been recognized as one of the most important factors affecting the mathematical performance of students. Previous studies on spatial learning have mainly focused on developing strategies to shorten the problem-solving time of learners for very specific learning tasks. Such an approach usually has limited effects on improving the mathematical performance of students. In this study, a cognitive analysis approach is proposed for developing spatial learning tools by taking game characteristics into consideration. Moreover, the validation of the cognitive components of the spatial sense test for constructing two different kinds of intervention is verified, and the effects of the interventions are compared. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on the mathematics course of an elementary school. The experimental results show that the spatial learning tool promotes not only the learning achievement, but also the spatial sense of the students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The face-to-face computer-supported collaborative learning has emerged as an important strategy to elementary students'' learning. Few studies have explicitly incorporated the structured peer tutoring to the synchronous environment in mathematics. This study was aimed to explore the effects of the synchronous peer tutoring system on children's mathematics learning. In the project, there were 88 10–11-year-old students who peer tutored each other in mathematics in the face-to-face online environment for a year. Compared to the control group, students in the experimental group had significant gains in mathematics learning, especially in the arithmetic and application types of questions. This study demonstrated the positive effects of peer support via the online synchronous learning on students'' self-concept and attitudes toward mathematics learning. The results indicated that the longer the vulnerable pupils engaged in peer tutoring online, the more they benefited from the process. The finding suggests that students demonstrate different mathematics reasoning skills when they are paired with peers at different levels of ability. These findings demonstrate that the synchronous peer tutoring system is an effective tool to enhance elementary students'' learning in mathematics, as well as promote positive self-concepts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A problem-posing system is developed with four phases including posing problem, planning, solving problem, and looking back, in which the “solving problem” phase is implemented by game-scenarios. The system supports elementary students in the process of problem-posing, allowing them to fully engage in mathematical activities. In total, 92 fifth graders from four different classes were recruited. The experimental group used the problem-posing system, whereas the control group followed the traditional paper-based approach. The study investigates the effects of the problem-posing system on students’ problem-posing ability, problem-solving ability, and flow experiences. The results revealed more flow experiences, and higher problem-solving and problem-posing abilities in the experimental group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Fostering problem-solving abilities has long been recognized as an important issue in education; however, past studies have shown that it is difficult and challenging to find effective learning strategies or tools for improving students’ problem-solving abilities. To cope with this problem, in this study, a hybrid approach that integrates the cognitive apprenticeship model with the collaborative learning strategy is proposed for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. Students’ problem-solving performance is examined in such a hybrid learning context. Furthermore, past studies indicate that cognitive load could affect learners’ performance; thus, the influence of cognitive load on students’ problem-solving effectiveness with this new approach is investigated in depth. The experimental results show that middle- and low-achievement students in the experimental group gained significant benefits from the hybrid approach in comparison with those who learned with the traditional approach. Accordingly, a discussion of how to accommodate the needs of different learning ability groups is provided. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study investigated split-attention and redundancy effects in a mobile learning environment on leaf morphology of plants as a function of different combinations of media. Eighty-one fifth-grade students were randomly assigned to the following three conditions: texts with pictures embedded in the mobile device (TP condition); texts embedded in the mobile device and real objects that are outside of the mobile device (TO condition); and texts with pictures embedded in the mobile device and real objects that are outside of the mobile device (TPO condition). Differences in performance on comprehension tests and learning efficiency were examined across conditions. The TP condition was expected to perform better than the TO condition due to a split-attention effect. The TP and TO conditions were expected to perform better than the TPO condition due to a redundancy effect. The results indicated no difference between the TP and the TO condition in comprehension and learning efficiency, but the TP and TO conditions performed better than the TPO condition on both measures. The implications of the results for research and design of mobile learning environments are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using a dynamic geometry environment (DGE) together with inquiry-based explorations on the sixth grade students’ achievements in polygons and congruency and similarity of polygons. Two groups of sixth grade students were selected for this study: an experimental group composed of 66 students (34 boys and 32 girls); and a control group composed of 68 students (35 boys and 33 girls). The students in the experimental group taught with a DGE, while the students in the control group received textbook-based direct instruction. An achievement test was administered as pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test in both groups. Qualitative data were collected through videotaped classroom observations. The results showed that the DGE together with open-ended explorations significantly improved students’ performances in polygons and congruency and similarity of polygons. Furthermore, students in the experimental group showed greater interest and motivation toward learning geometry compared to those in the control group whom often showed lack of interest and curiosity. Also, students’ comments and interpretations during lessons and tests were more accurate and advanced in the experimental group as they engage more in the DGE. Moreover, qualitative data suggested that boys showed greater interest in the computer-based learning environment than girls in the experimental groups although no significant gender effect on achievement was found. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a haptic augmented simulation in learning physics. The results indicate that haptic augmented simulations, both the force and kinesthetic and the purely kinesthetic simulations, were more effective than the equivalent non-haptic simulation in providing perceptual experiences and helping elementary students create multimodal representations of the movements of gears. However, in most cases, force feedback was needed to construct a fully loaded multimodal representation that helps students to comprehend later instruction with less sensory modalities. In addition, the force and kinesthetic simulation was effective in helping to transfer knowledge to new learning situations. These findings suggest that it is important to help elementary students make a solid cognitive grounding with the use of a perceptual anchor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Assessments, embedded with teachers’ implicit (i.e. tacit) domain knowledge, play an important role in evaluating ’comprehension of a subject. The knowledge on the importance of both the concepts and their relationships of a subject, if captured, made explicit, and shared around, may greatly help teachers construct more effective assessments. This study establishes a methodology to accumulate tacit knowledge of specific topics from collected assessments by using an implicit knowledge extraction mechanism and, visualises the overall importance distribution of concepts by using knowledge maps for helping teachers compile their assessments. Several two stage experiments, scheduled for one semester, were conducted in the third grade natural science courses at elementary schools in Taiwan. Eighteen teachers who actually teach the courses participated in the experiments, and thirty students were in each course. In the first stage, teachers compiled assessments without using IKMAAS’s knowledge map features while in the second stage, they did use them. System usage records, questionnaires and interview results were used for evaluating the usability of the methodology and the satisfaction of using IKMAAS. The results indicate the potential of the methodology, as each of the teachers agreed that the visualised assessment knowledge helped them to comprehend the proportions of concepts they intended to test easily and, additionally, helped them to clearly notice concepts they may have ignored. Yet the results in this study also show the potential of using knowledge maps and knowledge accumulating methodology in pedagogy paradigm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An evaluation study was conducted to investigate the effect of the use of a computer-supported cognitive tool (CT) in the one-to-one classroom setting on student engagement, attainment and perceptions in learning common fractions. Two Primary 4 classes with 68 students participated in this study based on 11 teaching sessions lasting 455 min in total. The students in the experimental group learned the target topic with the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom, while the students in the control group learned the target topic under the traditional teaching approach. The results of a time allocation analysis showed that the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom enhanced student engagement in terms of time-on-task for learning exploration during class time. The results of the post-attainment test indicated that students in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. Moreover, the questionnaire survey results indicated that students liked to learn the target topic with the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom. This study reveals the potential of the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom to promote classroom-based dialogic interaction in mathematics lessons. It also implies a need for a longitudinal study to investigate suitable pedagogical designs for the use of CT for promoting knowledge transfer in learning challenging mathematics topics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The advancement of mobile and wireless communication technologies has encouraged an increasing number of studies concerning mobile learning, in which students are able to learn via mobile devices without being limited by space and time; in particular, the students can be situated in a real-world scenario associated with the learning content. Although such an approach seems interesting to the students, researchers have emphasized the need for well-designed learning support in order to improve the students’ learning achievements. Therefore, it has become an important issue to develop methodologies or tools to assist the students to learn in a mobile learning environment. Based on this perspective, this study proposes a formative assessment-based approach for improving the learning achievements of students in a mobile learning environment. A mobile learning environment has been developed based on this approach, and an experiment on a local culture course has been conducted in southern Taiwan to evaluate its effectiveness. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only promotes the students’ learning interest and attitude, but also improves their learning achievement. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the flexibility of Personal Response Systems (PRSs), (also known as ‘clickers’ or electronic voting systems (EVS)), as part of strategies to support students’ learning in science. Whilst variants of this technology began to appear 12 years ago, there is now a steadily increasing adoption of these systems within higher education, including science programmes, and this use has grown significantly in the last six years. They have previously been shown to offer a measurable learning benefit. Typically, someone at an institution buys these systems for learning support and they never make it out of their cases. Far less work has been done with these systems at school level. In this practitioner based paper, the broad range of practical uses for these systems is described in a variety of formal and informal learning situations – from testing the understanding of science concepts (from primary aged school children up to physics undergraduates), to undertaking evaluation of events as well as public participation in data collection for research on attitudes to careers. In addition, the data collected on such handsets can be mapped to demographic factors such as gender and age yielding further layers of analysis. Overall this is a highly flexible and transferable approach to the use of interactive technology for engaging learners of all ages as well as carrying out research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this study is to investigate whether personalization of mathematical word problems affects student achievement; and if it does, to find out whether the outcomes vary depending on computer and class environment in the teaching of mathematics. The sample of the research, conducted in the 2006–2007 fall semester, consists of 90 seventh grade in four sub-groups. During the application in the classroom, paper-based personalized and paper-based non-personalized problems were given. As to the computer environment, web-based personalized and web-based non-personalized problems were presented. After the application, an achievement test was performed as an achievement post-test parallel to the pre-test. The results show no significant difference between the scores of the groups who used personalized materials and the groups who used non-personalized materials. The results also indicate that no significant difference exists between those who studied in the computer-based environment and those in the paper-based environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rapid advance of information and communication technologies (ICT) has important impacts on teaching and learning, as well as on the educational assessment. Teachers may create assessments utilizing some developed assessment software or test authoring tools. However, problems could occur, such as neglecting key concepts in the curriculum or having disproportionate course topics distribution, when teachers create assessments or test items. This study proposes a novel approach, which uses knowledge map with appraisal of concept weights and other ICTs, and implements an assessment system KMAAS to help primary school teachers in Taiwan, or elsewhere, create educational assessments properly. When compiling an assessment, KMAAS ensures that teachers can include all important course concepts intended for assessing and maintain correct balance between course concepts among test items. It does so first by analyzing course material of the assessment range and displaying a concept-weight-annotated knowledge map which concretize and visualize the importance of and the relationships among concepts in the range. It then analyzes the test sheet which is being complied and displays another similar real-time updated knowledge map containing balance between course concepts among the test items. Teachers may cross-refer to these maps to help them adjust concept balances and even select appropriate test items from test banks. The system has being evaluated in both the accuracy of learning concepts extraction and the degree of user satisfaction, as measured by questionnaires given to the teachers who tested the system. The promising results confirm the feasibility of this system in helping teachers compile their educational assessments easily and precisely. Other results of the formative evaluations on techniques have being used to improve the system in order to make it more effective and efficient. The methodology and technologies KMAAS employed are all well developed and are domain independent, which makes it highly flexible to transfer to other course subject domain too. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This mixed-methods investigation compared the effectiveness of three instructional approaches in achieving desired conceptual change among early childhood preservice teachers (n =157). Each of the three treatments employed inquiry-based instruction on moon phases using data collected from: (1) the planetarium software program, Starry Night™, (2) nature observations and Starry Night™, or (3) nature observations alone. Data sources included drawings, intensive interviews, and a lunar shapes card sort. The data sets were analyzed via a constant comparative method in order to produce profiles of each participant’s pre- and post-instruction conceptual understandings of moon phases. Non-parametric tests of significance revealed that pre- to post-instruction gains were significant for all three treatments across all targeted concepts. The Starry Night™-Only treatment demonstrated statistically greater gains for sequencing moon phases than the other two treatments. However, there were no significant differences among the three treatments in regard to participants’ abilities to draw scientific moon shapes or in their conceptions of the causes of moon phases. Thus, the three treatments were equally effective in facilitating desired conceptual change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A treatment/control study (N =773) was conducted to determine the extent to which use of interactive whiteboard technology (IWB) was associated with upper elementary students’ self-reported level of motivation in mathematics. Students in the treatment group reported higher levels of motivation relative to control students, but the effect was extremely weak. Students with teachers who were more supportive of IWB technology reported higher motivation levels (compared to students of teachers who were less supportive), but this effect also was very small. Claims about the motivation-enhancing effects of the IWB are not baseless, but they appear to be somewhat overstated. Research is needed to determine how IWB-use is associated with academic performance, and also to examine how teachers use the IWB and how this usage could be strengthened. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reports an extended analysis of the study reported in [Wood, C. (2005). Beginning readers’ use of ‘talking books’ software can affect their reading strategies. Journal of Research in Reading, 28, 170–182.], in which five and six-year-old children received either six sessions using specially designed talking books or six sessions of one-to-one tuition with an adult using the paper-based versions of the same books. This analysis focuses on the nature of the children’s interactions with either the adult or the computer in an attempt to explore how these different resources impacted on the children’s literacy interactions, and whether different styles of literacy interaction observed within each group were associated with gains in phonological awareness or changes in reading strategy. Four styles of literacy interaction were identified and there was a significant association between these styles and membership of one of the two experimental conditions in the study. Interactional style was also seen to impact positively on phonological awareness development for lower ability children who used the talking books. In contrast, interactional style affected changes in reading strategy amongst children in the adult tutor condition. Finally, there was also an influence of interactional style on spontaneous dialogic reading by the children overall, but this effect originated from the children in the adult tutor group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study developed a Mobile Plant Learning System (MPLS) that provides instructors with the ways and means to facilitate student learning in an elementary-school-level botany course. The MPLS represented in this study was implemented to address problems that arise with the use of a didactic approach to teaching and learning botany, as is typically used in elementary schools in Taiwan. To extend opportunities for learning beyond the classroom, this study used personal digital assistants (PDAs) equipped with the MPLS, which provided both teachers and students access to plant information while in the field. A quasi-experimental research design was used to investigate the effectiveness of using the MPLS to support student learning. The responses to questionnaires and interviews indicate that students valued the outdoor learning activities made possible by use of the PDA and its functions. Pre- and post-test results demonstrated that students also benefitted academically from the use of the MPLS and the PDA. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In order to facilitate senior primary school students in Hong Kong to engage in learning by observation of the phenomena related to electrical circuits, a design of a specific courseware system, of which the interactive human–machine interface was created with the use of an open-source software called the LabVNC, for conducting online remote-controlled experiments was developed in this study. The statistically significant results of a pre-test–post-test evaluation study showed that the LabVNC-based system has potential to promote students to learn the target topic under the approach of learning by observation. The assertion of the teacher on the pedagogical value of the remote-controlled experimentation and the enthusiasm of students in using the LabVNC-based system reveal the potential to integrate the use of the LabVNC-based system with the practice of scientific experiments. Based on the feedback from the teacher and students, the existing LabVNC-based system will be refined under the design-based research approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The implementation of a computer game for learning about geography by primary school students is the focus of this article. Researchers designed and developed a three-dimensional educational computer game. Twenty four students in fourth and fifth grades in a private school in Ankara, Turkey learnt about world continents and countries through this game for three weeks. The effects of the game environment on students’ achievement and motivation and related implementation issues were examined through both quantitative and qualitative methods. An analysis of pre and post achievement tests showed that students made significant learning gains by participating in the game-based learning environment. When comparing their motivations while learning in the game-based learning environment and in their traditional school environment, it was found that students demonstrated statistically significant higher intrinsic motivations and statistically significant lower extrinsic motivations learning in the game-based environment. In addition, they had decreased focus on getting grades and they were more independent while participating in the game-based activities. These positive effects on learning and motivation, and the positive attitudes of students and teachers suggest that computer games can be used as an ICT tool in formal learning environments to support students in effective geography learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Employing mixed-method approach, this case study examined the in situ use of educational computer games in a summer math program to facilitate 4th and 5th graders’ cognitive math achievement, metacognitive awareness, and positive attitudes toward math learning. The results indicated that students developed more positive attitudes toward math learning through five-week computer math gaming, but there was no significant effect of computer gaming on students’ cognitive test performance or metacognitive awareness development. The in-field observation and students’ think-aloud protocol informed that not every computer math drill game would engage children in committed learning. The study findings have highlighted the value of situating learning activities within the game story, making games pleasantly challenging, scaffolding reflections, and designing suitable off-computer activities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We present PKIP, an adaptable learning assistant tool for managing question items in item banks. PKIP is not only able to automatically assist educational users to categorize the question items into predefined categories by their contents but also to correctly retrieve the items by specifying the category and/or the difficulty level. PKIP adapts the “categorization learning model” to improve the system’s categorization performance using the incoming question items. PKIP tool has an advantage over the traditional document categorization methods in that it can correctly categorize the question item which lacks keywords since it adopts the feature selection technique and support vector machine approach to item bank text categorization. In our initial experimentation, PKIP was designed and implemented to manage the Thai high primary mathematics question items. PKIP was tested and evaluated in terms of both system accuracy and user satisfaction. The evaluation result shows that the system accuracy is acceptable and PKIP satisfies the need of the users. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this research is to devise a cognitive tool for meeting the diverse needs of learners for comprehending new procedural knowledge. A model of affordances on teaching fraction equivalence for developing procedural knowledge for adding/subtracting fractions with unlike denominators was derived from the results of a case study of an initial prototype of a graphical partitioning model. Offering affordances in our model makes available profitable spaces for learners to interact in ways that meet their needs. This model of affordances was evaluated by a pre-test–post-test control group design to study the performance of the experimental group in learning with the model. Results of the study indicated that the model afforded learners, with various abilities for learning, knowledge of fraction equivalence. The key for mediating the generation of procedural knowledge for adding/subtracting fractions with unlike denominators in working with our cognitive tool was the concept of fraction equivalence and the capability of computing this. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the accessibility and attractiveness of different types of ICT applications in education for girls and boys and for pupils from families with an ethnic minority background and from the majority population in the Netherlands. A study was conducted in seven schools (primary and secondary). Data were collected on participation, ICT skills and learning results, ICT attitudes and the learning approach of pupils. A total of 213 pupils completed a questionnaire and interviews were held with 48 pupils and 12 teachers. Gender differences, especially in primary education, appeared to be small. In secondary education, the computer attitude of girls seems to be less positive than that of boys, girls and boys take on different tasks when working together on the computer and they tackle ICT tasks differently. Pupils from an ethnic-minority background in both primary and secondary education appear to consider themselves to be less skilled ICT users than pupils from the majority population. We found ethnic differences in participation in ICT activities at school in both educational sectors. Pupils from an ethnic-minority background use the computer at school less for gathering information and preparing talks and papers and more for drill and practice. Differences between pupils from an ethnic-minority background and from the majority population in access to certain forms of ICT use out of school are confirmed at school instead of being compensated for. The paper concludes with some recommendations on a diversity-oriented ICT policy at school level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Writing with the computer provokes and enables pupils to engage with aspects of multimodal design [Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures, Routledge, London, 2000]. At the same time the traditional stages of the writing process become much more fluid and integrated [Aust. J. Language Literacy 17(3) (1994) 183]. These consequences of technology are not recognised within the curriculum, the assessment system or current models of teaching the writing process in the UK. Using examples from current classroom research this paper argues that the significance of pupils’ uses of the ‘available designs’ of digital experience [Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures, Routledge, London, 2000] is undervalued. Furthermore it suggests that this undervaluing leaves teachers without well-developed pedagogic models of literacy when computers are involved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Content area K-12 teachers are increasingly asked to integrate computing and computational thinking into their classrooms, yet they often have little experience with computing. The purpose of this study was to understand how science teachers, new to computing and integrating computational thinking into their classrooms, supported students as computational problem solvers. In the project from which this research was drawn, 8th grade science teachers in three US school districts integrated computer game design into their study of climate systems and climate change. We conducted participant observation, collected teacher implementation logs and interviewed 15 teachers engaged in the three-year design research project, Building Systems from Scratch. Analysis through grounded theory yielded several results related to teachers' orientations, strategies, and use of resources to create systems of distributed expertise. We identified five major themes: a) releasing responsibility to students, b) co-learning with students, c) encouraging students' independent problem solving, d) building interdependence among students, and e) providing multiple other resources. Findings are discussed in relation to the literature on integrating computational thinking into content area classrooms. • Science teachers' orientations to incorporating computational thinking practices. • Science teachers distribute expertise to support computational problem-solving. • Opportunities and tensions for independent student computational problem-solving. • Strategies for teachers new to integrating computational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]