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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]

Background: TPACK is a widely used framework for assessing teachers' competence in integrating technology in education. However, previous studies have shown varying interpretations of the relationship between TPACK elements. Qualitative studies that assess the manifestations of TPACK by examining the practices of pre‐service teachers are rare. Objectives: This study investigates technology integration in innovative physics teaching and learning materials designed by pre‐service teachers and the manifestation of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in empirical cases. Methods: We qualitatively extracted the components of PCK, TPK, and TCK from the innovative physics teaching and learning materials developed by 22 pre‐service teachers in their fourth year at a teachers' college in South Korea. We scored them based on the new evaluation criteria established in this study. Results and Conclusions: Based on the materials, we identified three types of technology integration: Learning Materials Providing, Learning Activity Providing, and Virtual Experiments Creating. This study identifies teachers' level of TK and integrates it with TPACK expression. Results confirm the connection between TK and TCK and show that a strong PCK can serve as a basis for TPK. The TPACK expression pattern can help achieve balanced development of TPACK in teacher education. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: TPACK framework combines pedagogical, content, and technological knowledge in teachers' professional expertise.Despite TPACK's widespread use, studies showed varied interpretations of the relationships between its elements.TPACK measurement often relies on self‐assessment, lacking a total reflection of technology use in teaching.Few qualitative studies explore TPACK manifestations through pre‐service teachers' practices. What the paper adds to the currently known about: There are three types of technology integration: Learning Materials Providing, Learning Activity Providing, and Virtual Experiments Creating.The study found that pre‐service teachers in the virtual experiments creating type exhibit strong subject‐specific TPACK.In physics education, TK is essential and can be divided into the use of ICT and programming.The study correlates TK levels with TPACK expressions, resulting in five patterns based on PCK, TPK, TCK, and TK. The implications of study findings for practitioners: The study presents empirical evidence of TPACK manifestation in pre‐service physics teachers, focusing on TK.High programming TK has a significant impact on subject‐specific TPACK.The study confirms the TK‐TCK connection and highlights PCK's role in TPK.TPACK patterns can guide teacher education, fostering balanced development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of augmented reality (AR) using a 3D app in a smartphone on students' learning outcomes and satisfaction in teaching angle measurement error to vocational high school students with different spatial ability. A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest was employed. There were 197 students from three vocational high schools in the southern, northern, and eastern part of Taiwan participated in this study. To minimize the biased result, we established one control group and one experimental group in each school. The experimental group used multimedia teaching tools and AR technology as a supplement, while the control group was taught by multimedia teaching tools only. We assessed some factors that possibly affect the learning outcomes and learning satisfaction, including different spatial abilities and different digital materials as teaching tools. Our finding highlights that different teaching materials influence students' learning outcomes and satisfaction, whereas spatial ability does not affect. Further discussion and implementation are also identified in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, the number of English speakers and the significance of the English language are constantly increasing. Among various technology-supported instructional styles, Mobile Learning (M-Learning) has been recognized as a promising approach to enhance students' competencies and skills in the English language. By examining previous literature, a number of reviews have been performed to investigate the role of M-learning in the English language. However, none of these studies has highlighted the trends, opportunities, and challenges identified in the most cited articles that focused solely on the English language. Therefore, to address these limitations, this study performed a review of the top 100 most cited articles, published between 2007 and 2020, indexed by the Web of Science, and addressing the English language only. The results revealed that most research in Mobile English Language Learning (M-ELL) followed an experimental design and employed a single mobile learning implementation. Additionally, the current study identified a number of research areas that require additional research attention. For example, further research is needed among students learning from home, more qualitative research is needed, and additional research is required to improve students' higher-order thinking skills. The outcomes of this study provide a reference to researchers and educators who intend to use mobile technologies in the area of language education, especially in the context of the English language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using computational methods to produce and interpret multiple scientific representations is now a common practice in many science disciplines. Research has shown students have difficulty in moving across, connecting, and sensemaking from multiple representations. There is a need to develop task-specific representational competencies for students to reason and conduct scientific investigations using multiple representations. In this study, we focus on three representational competencies: 1) linking between representations, 2) disciplinary sensemaking from multiple representations, and 3) conceptualizing domain-relevant content derived from multiple representations. We developed a block code-based computational modeling environment with three different representations and embedded it within an online activity for students to carry out investigations around the earthquake cycle. The three representations include a procedural representation of block codes, a geometric representation of land deformation build-up, and a graphical representation of deformation build-up over time. We examined the extent of students' representational competencies and which competencies are most correlated with students' future performance in a computationally supported geoscience investigation. Results indicate that a majority of the 431 students showed at least some form of representational competence. However, a relatively small number of students showed sophisticated levels of linking, sensemaking, and conceptualizing from the representations. Five of seven representational competencies, the most prominent being code sensemaking (η2 = 0.053, p < 0.001), were significantly correlated to student performance on a summative geoscience investigation. • Representational competencies (RCs) enable students to build domain knowledge. • Students developed knowledge of the earthquake cycle using the three representations. • Students can link, make sense of, and understand dynamically-linked representations. • RCs are significant indicators of performance on real-world investigation tasks. [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.

• Using AI to improve dancing students' skills, motivation and self-efficacy • Benefits of the electronic dance skills teaching, evaluation and visual feedback (DSTEVF) system • AI technology enables dance students to obtain timely feedback on their performance, and received personalized guidance from dancing instructors • The DSTEVF system can improve teaching efficiency in other disciplines as well Despite the importance of artificial intelligence in education, its effectiveness in this field requires more empirical research for corroborating evidence. In this study, a dance skills teaching, evaluation, and visual feedback (DSTEVF) system was developed based on AI technology and applied in a dance classroom. Forty participants from a vocational school studying dance were randomly divided into two groups: DSTEVF-based learning (experimental group, n = 19) and traditional teaching (control group, n = 21). The DSTEVF-based learning approach significantly improved students' dance skills and self-efficacy. However, there was no significant effect on students' motivation. Students with higher levels of motivation and self-efficacy benefitted more from DSTEVF-based learning than those with lower levels. Evidently, it is possible to establish a smart classroom by applying DSTEVF to the teaching activities of dance education, physical education, and other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of environmental education, it is crucial to obtain a profound understanding of students' learning about ecosystem concepts, particularly with regard to the intricate processes of material cycling. Material cycling involves the movement and transformation of elements and compounds within ecosystems and serves as a cornerstone for effective instructional techniques aimed at improving learning outcomes. This study examines the synergistic potential of merging inquiry-based instruction with information literacy within the context of the "mini ecosystem" theme to increase seventh-grade students' comprehension of ecosystem concepts, material cycling, modeling design, and visual literacy. Utilizing a quasiexperimental design, the student cohort was divided into an experimental group that was exposed to inquiry-based instruction and information literacy and a control group that utilized integrated audiovisual media. Assessment tools included standardized tests, open-ended inquiries, design drawings, and evaluations of visual literacy. This study sheds light on students' comprehension of concepts related to ecosystems and material cycling and highlights the effectiveness of integrating inquiry-based instruction and information literacy. Notably, the experimental group surpassed the control group in several aspects, including understanding and higher-order thinking of ecosystem concepts, overall model design with material selection, and overall visual literacy, including aesthetic techniques and creative imagination. However, no significant differences were found in conceptual design or material cycling of model design or in theme composition in visual literacy. In both groups, students with higher pretest scores did not exhibit improvement in the understanding of ecosystem concepts. Despite the identified limitations, the results underscore the potential benefits of each individual component (i.e., inquiry-based instruction and information literacy) as well as their combined synergistic effect in bolstering students' grasp of ecosystem concepts. The study concludes by discussing its limitations and providing suggestions for future research. • Examine impact of integrating 5E inquiry with information literacy into ecosystem understanding. • Analyze grasp of ecosystem and material cycling, modeling design, and visual literacy. • Experimental group outperformed control group in various ecosystem concepts. • Low-scoring students notably improve in the ecosystem and material cycling concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to integrate video games into classrooms not as a replacement for regular lessons but as supplementary materials under the teacher's supervision. To this extent, the researcher created an educational English learning video game specifically modeled on the students' real lives. Ninety-six middle school students, 48 in the control group and 48 in the experimental group, participated in the study. While follow-up activities were used in the control group and the regular classroom teaching, students in the experimental group played the educational game under the teacher's supervision with no follow-up activities. Pre, post, and retention achievement tests were applied to the students. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 18 students from the experimental group. The results showed that the experimental group's vocabulary learning and retention were significantly higher than the control group. Also, the views of the students on English lessons and games based on their lives were promising. By considering the achievement test and students' views on the game developed, it can be said that the game in the study includes educational features as well as the basic features of the games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain–computer interface (BCI) technology has the potential to positively contribute to the educational learning environment, which faces many challenges and shortcomings. Cognitive and affective BCIs can offer a deep understanding of brain mechanisms, which may improve learning strategies and increase brain-based skills. They can offer a better empirical foundation for teaching–learning methodologies, including adjusting learning content based on brain workload, measuring student interest of a topic, or even helping students focus on specific tasks. The latest findings from emerging BCI technology, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, and psychology could be used in learning and teaching strategies to improve student abilities in education. This study investigates and analyzes the research on BCI patterns and its implementation for enhancing cognitive capabilities of students. The results showed that there is insufficient literature on BCI that addresses students with disabilities in the learning process. Further, our analysis revealed a bias toward the significance of cognitive process factors compared with other influential factors, such as the learning environment and emotions that influence learning. Finally, we concluded that BCI technology could improve students’ learning and cognitive skills—when consistently associated with the different pedagogical teaching–learning strategies—for better academic achievement.

This study explores the pedagogical use of adaptive learning to foster learner-content interaction, and its subsequent impact on student performance in a large first year Macroeconomics course in an Irish University. To increase student-content interaction, an adaptive learning tool (LearnSmart) is employed to create five weekly adaptive reading assignments, over a six-week period. We include two separate indicators of learner-content interaction (the amount of time spent and number of completed adaptive assignments) in our analysis. Results indicate that student performance is enhanced by the number of completed adaptive assignments, which captures learner-content interaction and adaptive learning. However, the amount of time spent studying was negatively associated with performance. This surprising result comes as a novel contribution, which extends our knowledge of how adaptive learning technology can be potentially used to drive learner-content interaction and student performance. Pedagogically, our findings suggest the need for more intentional design and personalisation of learning activities to enhance student-content interaction and subsequent performance. • Adaptive learning enhances learner-content interaction and performance. • The number of completed adaptive assignments increases student performance. • The amount of time spent studying is negatively associated with performance. • A certain time investment is required to realise benefits from adaptive learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training and examining healthcare practitioners' nursing skills by situating them in a contextualized environment to interact with trained simulated patients and making required decisions based on the collected information is a widely adopted approach in nursing training. In a nursing skills course, the flipped learning method shifts the lecture time to the before-class time, allowing more time for teachers' guidance and skills practice in the class. However, if students do not have in-depth understanding in the individual learning space, their learning achievement is often not as expected. In this study, an ASQ (Annotation, Summarizing and Questioning)-based flipped learning strategy for nursing skills training is proposed to engage nurse practitioners (NPs) in deep and effective learning. Moreover, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of the proposed approach on learners' learning achievement, nursing skills, self-efficacy, cognitive load, and critical thinking tendency. The experimental results showed that the approach not only improved NPs' nursing skills, but also significantly increased their self-efficacy and critical thinking tendency. • An ASQ-based flipped learning approach was proposed. • The approach helps students effectively identify key concepts before the class. • An experiment was conducted in a clinical nursing skills training course. • The approach improved the learners' nursing skills performance. • The approach improved the learners' self-efficacy and critical thinking tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To situate students in authentic English learning and practicing contexts so as to facilitate their writing performance, in this study, a mind mapping-based contextual gaming approach was proposed. A quasi-experiment was implemented by recruiting two English tourism classes of students from a university of science and technology in northern Taiwan. One class was scheduled to learn with the proposed approach, and the other was arranged to learn with the conventional contextual gaming approach. The students' writing performance, learning perceptions and generative uses were measured to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It was found that, compared to the control group students; the experimental group students who learned with the proposed learning approach had better writing performance in the aspects of fluency and elaboration with a small effect size. Additionally, it was found that most students considered the game to be beneficial and interesting, and they were in favor of the mind mapping strategy. Moreover, it was also found that the proposed learning approach is more likely to help students produce positive thoughts and feelings, generate diverse ideas, create a sense of exoticism and express actions or intent of actions. Finally, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for improvement of this proposed gaming learning environment and approaches are provided. • A mind mapping-based contextual gaming approach was proposed. • An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. • The approach has been applied to an English tourism course. • The approach improved the students' writing performance and language use. • Some suggestions for improvement of this proposed approach are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this study, we systematically reviewed the experimental mobile learning studies published in 2010–2016. Moreover, the activity theory framework was adopted to investigate the insights and trends of mobile learning. That is, the dimensions of context, tools, control, communication, subjects and objectives were employed to analyze the studies. It was found that most experimental mobile learning studies engaged students in real-world contexts, and the activities were conducted based on the existing school curriculums. This means that researchers and school teachers noted the value of situating students in meaningful learning by helping them link what they had learned from the textbooks to real-world scenarios or daily life environments. In the meantime, the studies frequently involved the students in actively using mobile systems with communication facilities to acquire knowledge via interacting with peers, events, and specified real-world learning targets in the environment. On one hand, many researchers proposed to raise students' motivation; on the other hand, they expected to observe more of what the learners, particularly novices and low-achievement students, had done when observing their past interactions. Even so, it was found that mobile devices were considered a main way of allowing students to acquire self-learning materials rather than only mediation learning across contexts. As the current studies can be considered to contain blended rather than purely self-paced learning, there is still a large space for mobile learning progress and development. Highlights • A review on experimental m-learning was done based on the activity theory framework. • The studies published in 2010–2016 were investigated to find the trends of m-learning. • The context, tool, control, communication, subject and objective aspects were analyzed. • The phenomena of the m-learning activities conducted in the studies were reported. • Possible research issues of m-learning in the future were proposed. [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]

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers interact with students in order to prepare them to conduct research with multiple online texts as part of the process of scientific inquiry in the classroom. The specific focus of this work was on understanding how teachers used classroom dialogue to create an environment that supports the use of multiple online text-based resources as part of the process of doing science. Data collection for this study occurred in the 6th grade classrooms of two teachers in a Midwestern school district. Each of the teachers taught three science classes for a total of 150 students. A test of students' content knowledge of physics was used in order to evaluate students' understanding of the physics concepts targeted in the curriculum. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that the students from one teacher's classes performed significantly better on the physics test than the students of the other teacher (p <.05). To qualitatively investigate the differences between the whole class dialogue used by the two teachers, teachers' interactions with students as they prepared them to engage in research with the multiple texts were coded. Coding of the dialogue revealed that the teacher whose students exhibited higher learning outcomes engaged in more deep level facilitation strategies during whole class discussion, including setting learning goals for text interactions, connecting to prior knowledge, and discussing the use of multiple texts as part of doing science. Highlights • Teachers differed in their facilitation strategies but not in discourse structure. • Deep level facilitation strategies were associated with better learning outcomes. • Setting learning goals for text interactions seemed to impact knowledge development. • Stressing personal and conceptual relevance helped students to connect with texts. • Discussing use of multiple texts as part of science was a key facilitation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational Thinking (CT) is seen as an important competence that is required in order to adapt to the future. However, educators, especially K-12 teachers and researchers, have not clearly identified how to teach it. In this study, a meta-review of the studies published in academic journals from 2006 to 2017 was conducted to analyze application courses, adopted learning strategies, participants, teaching tools, programming languages, and course categories of CT education. From the review results, it was found that the promotion of CT in education has made great progress in the last decade. In addition to the increasing number of CT studies in different countries, the subjects, research issues, and teaching tools have also become more diverse in recent years. It was also found that CT has mainly been applied to the activities of program design and computer science, while some studies are related to other subjects. Meanwhile, most of the studies adopted Project-Based Learning, Problem-Based Learning, Cooperative Learning, and Game-based Learning in the CT activities. In other words, such activities as aesthetic experience, design-based learning, and storytelling have been relatively less frequently adopted. Most of the studies focused on programming skills training and mathematical computing, while some adopted a cross-domain teaching mode to enable students to manage and analyze materials of various domains by computing. In addition, since the cognitive ability of students of different ages varies, the CT ability cultivation methods and content criteria should vary accordingly. Moreover, most studies reported the learners' CT performance and perspectives, while their information society ability was seldom trained. Accordingly, the research trends and potential research issues of CT are proposed as a reference for researchers, instructors, and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, flipped learning has received increasing emphasis; it engages students in deriving basic knowledge through instructional videos before the class, and hence more time is available for practicing, applying knowledge, or student-teacher interaction in class. Many scholars have pointed out that, with such a learning approach, teachers can design more effective in-class activities by guiding students to have higher order thinking as well as interactions with peers and teachers. In the meantime, researchers have also indicated that employing proper educational technologies or learning strategies could further improve students’ performance. Therefore, in this study, an Augmented Reality (AR)-based learning guiding mode is proposed for developing a flipped learning system. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in a natural science learning activity of an elementary school using the developed system. The participants were four classes of 111 fifth graders. Two classes were assigned to the experimental group, while the others were the control group. Those learning in the experimental group used the AR-based flipped learning mode, while those in the control group learned with the conventional flipped learning mode. From the experimental results, it was found that the AR-based flipped learning guiding approach not only benefited the students in terms of promoting their project performance, but also improved their learning motivation, critical thinking tendency, and group self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educators are increasingly turning to multimedia presentations as a means to convey complex information. Pharmacological mechanisms of action are dynamic processes that may be effectively represented as animations. Drug mechanisms of action were described in four different presentation formats: text only; text and static images; animation and text; or animation with narration. A comparison of these presentation modes found no significant difference on performance on a best answer multiple choice quiz. In addition, there was no significant effect of individual learning style. When learning about material related to their discipline of study, students may possess the ability to construct mental models that obviate the need for multimedia. Resources currently invested in the development of multimedia materials may be better diverted elsewhere. Furthermore, the results from this study do not support the routine assessment of individual learning styles in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student performance, student progress and student potential are critical for measuring learning results, selecting learning materials and learning activities. However, existing work doesn't provide enough analysis tools to analyze how students performed, which factors would affect their performance, in which way students can make progress, and whether students have potential to perform better. To solve those problems, we have provided multiple analysis tools to analyze student performance, student progress and student potentials in different ways. First, this paper formulates student model with performance related attributes and non-performance related attributes by Student Attribute Matrix (SAM), which quantifies student attributes, so that we can use it to make further analysis. Second, this paper provides a student performance estimation tools using Back Propagation Neural Network (BP-NN) based on classification, which can estimate student performance/attributes according to students' prior knowledge as well as the performance/attributes of other students who have similar characteristics. Third, this paper proposes student progress indicators and attribute causal relationship predicator based on BP-NN to comprehensively describe student progress on various aspects together with their causal relationships. Those indicators and predicator can tell how much a factor would affect student performance, so that we can train up students on purpose. Finally, this paper proposes a student potential function that evaluates student achievement and development of such attributes. We have illustrated our analysis tools by using real academic performance data collected from 60 high school students. Evaluation results show that the proposed tools can give correct and more accurate results, and also offer a better understanding on student progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the increasing number of university students attending large statistics classes as a requirement for their degree courses, the use of an online learning environment is indispensable for delivering immediate and frequent feedback. However, results of research on the value of technological tools and blended courses in various academic disciplines are not consistent and only point to minimal effects on academic achievement. To fill this gap, in this study, participation in optional electronic quizzes and its effects on exam grades in large statistics classes depending on gender and previous statistics- and mathematics-related abilities are investigated. Overall, participation in the electronic quizzes yielded a positive effect on final grades. However, particularly the groups who participated less in the electronic quizzes – i.e. poor performing students and males - benefitted more from quiz participation than high performing and female students. The large variability in effect sizes of feedback on performance suggests that additional moderators such as specific situation- and task-related characteristics and individual affective preconditions such as effort, motivation, and self-esteem should be analyzed in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviewed the literature on mobile technology-supported collaborative learning from 2007 to 2016. Several issues, such as the distributions and research methods, learning devices and learning environments, participants, research issues, application domains, grouping methods and collaborative learning strategies, are addressed. In addition, the relationship between the learning strategies and measurement issues are investigated. The review found that the amount of research on mobile collaborative learning increased and the connection between new mobile technology and collaborative learning activities became tighter. College students received the greatest emphasis, but more focus should be put on junior and elementary school students. Few studies were conducted on teachers and adults. In the most recent five years, the research was focused on improving learners' performance in science, especially social science, and in natural scenarios outside of the classroom, but less emphasis was put on developing learners’ skills and higher order skills. There was little research focusing on different selection methods of group members and the teaching effects of grouping design. Most research adopted conceptualized collaborative learning strategies. Furthermore, some studies proposed that the collaborative learning activities conducted in mobile learning environments should be designed carefully to guide students to experience more effective collaborative constructivist learning. Based on the findings, in-depth discussion and suggestions for future studies are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese texts contain the essence of traditional Chinese culture and humanistic spirit, although they are obscure and difficult to understand. The integration of e-books into language learning can play a positive role and improve reading comprehension because of the diversified support tools and features of multimedia interaction in e-books. Therefore, this study investigated the teaching of classical Chinese with a combination of e-books, reciprocal teaching, and mind mapping; the effects of this approach on reading comprehension and knowledge sharing were explored. The sample consisted of two tenth-grade classes of a vocational school. Both groups received the reciprocal teaching strategy with mind mapping. The control group received traditional paper books; the experimental group received e-books. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used in this study. The results were as follows. (1) Classical Chinese reading comprehension aspect: The experimental group performed more satisfactorily than did the control group, indicating that the integration of the e-book resulted in this measurable improvement by enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. (2) Knowledge sharing aspect: The pretest and posttest scores significantly differed between the experimental and control groups, indicating that diversified support tools can promote knowledge sharing. (3) Mind-mapping aspect: the scores of the whole structure (color and image), association skills, and the contents of the articles were more satisfactory in the experimental group than in the control group. (4) Learners had a positive attitude toward the combination of e-books, reciprocal teaching, and mind mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, the issues related to mobile learning have been widely discussed around the globe; however, the development and trends of applying mobile technologies in nursing education still lack systematic analysis. In this study, a meta review of the studies published in academic journals from 1971 to 2016 was conducted to analyze the application domains, subjects, adopted learning strategies, investigated research issues and findings of mobile technology-supported nursing education. From the review results, it was found that the use of mobile technologies in nursing education and training have made great progress in the past decades. In addition to the changes in mobile technologies and the increasing number of mobile learning studies in nursing education, the subjects and research issues have also become more diverse in recent years. It was also found that mobile learning has mainly been applied to the training of basic nursing concepts and skills as well as to long-term care and obstetrics and gynecology, while few or even no studies are related to other nursing education domains. In addition, several widely adopted mobile learning strategies, such as inquiry-based learning, contextual mobile learning, snychronous sharing, Mindtools, project-based learning and peer assessment, have seldom been adopted in mobile nursing education. This also reflects the fact that most of these studies focused on skills training and basic knowledge comprehension, while few were conducted in the domains aimed at fostering learners' higher order thinking competences, such as problem solving or critical thinking. On the other hand, it was found that the number of studies using an experimental design has increased in recent years; moreover, most studies reported the learners’ cognitive performance and perceptions, while their learning behaviors were seldom analyzed. Accordingly, the research trends and potential research issues of mobile nursing education are proposed as a reference for researchers, instructors and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article introduces the concept of an educational game application aimed at providing training in predictive second language (L2) processing. The prototype of the game, focusing on Swedish tone-suffix associations, was tested during a two-week-period, with L2 learners whose native language lacked the targeted anticipatory linguistic cue. Results indicated that the game successfully promoted the learning of a novel L2 predictive strategy, as reflected in a general increase in accuracy throughout the test period and a gradually faster performance of the predictive task. More time spent on the highest level of the game was associated with greater accuracy gains. Furthermore, results suggest that perceptual training provided by the prototype even leads to improved production of the tonal cue. Implementation of the presented game concept in the form of a platform game is also discussed. [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]

Scaffolds in games have the potential to facilitate learning effects in addition to assisting the gaming process. However, studies on game-based science learning usually only adopt questionnaires to evaluate scientific concepts, and use interviews or observations to assess problem solving ability, neglecting the importance of investigating game-making outcomes. We customized a digital game, “Crayon Physics Deluxe,” with varied scaffolding designs to evaluate their effects on science learning. A total of 126 participants were divided into four groups: demonstration scaffolding, non-scaffolding, marking critical features scaffolding, and the no-game group. Learning outcomes were examined in terms of physics knowledge acquisition (in the form of concept maps) and design creativity (in the form of game episode designs). Students were asked to transform their roles from problem solvers to problem designers, which might not only demonstrate their ability to solve scientific problems, but also develop their creativity potential in designing scientific puzzles. The results indicated that the marking critical features scaffolding group performed significantly better than the demonstration scaffolding group in both conceptual knowledge acquisition and the sensitivity dimension of design creativity, while the group with demonstration scaffolding scored higher in the flexibility dimension of design creativity. These findings suggest that proper scaffolds could be designed to function as learning scaffolds rather than just as gaming scaffolds, and different learning purposes require various scaffolding designs. The content of the scaffolds, as well as the timing of their provision should be carefully designed according to the game features to achieve specific instructional purposes. [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]

Scientific modeling is thought to help students understand the world and scientific phenomenon. Science laboratory in school should provide well-designed activities to promote students' model building skills. Thus, this study aims to propose microcomputer based labs with several data acquisition tools and a modeling tool, which can assist students to collect and visualize data in faster and fancier ways, and generate mathematical models to fit the data, thus exercising their skills of scientific modeling. Thirty-two high school students participated in the science laboratory courses within two semesters for four labs. Results showed that students' overall success rates of model building were approaching 50%; the duration of participants' modeling time decreased with the increase of the experimental labs; the benefits of doing physics labs with smartphones were confirmed by the success rates, personal preferences, and students' feedback. Regarding students' spontaneous model building behavior in the first lab, almost 90% of the participants fitted data with linear equation; most participants adjusted coefficients to fit the data, instead of changing the highest degree of equation; and different strategies were used by successful participants and the others. These results indicated that the combination of modern data acquisition tools and fitting data with a modeling tool would provide an alternative and meaningful approach to doing physics labs at high school. [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]

The main purpose of the study was to explore how different augmented 3D visualizations may affect the learning of complex science concepts using the eye tracking method. An Augmented Reality (AR) learning system incorporated with different 3D visualizations was developed to assist conceptual learning in the topic of "molecular shapes." Learners' visual attention during the AR learning was recorded using a mobile eye tracking system. Participants were 32 10th grade students. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess students' learning achievements. Learners were grouped into low and high achievers according to the posttest result. To analyze the associations between learners' visual attentions and learning achievements, correlation, t -test, correlation, and regression analyses were applied. Additionally, we conducted lag sequential analysis (LSA) to compare the visual transitions of different groups of achievers. The results showed that learners' conceptual understanding was improved after the AR learning activity. Among the different 3D visualizations, learners attended more to the static and dynamic types in the basic learning stage and to the static and interactive types in the advanced learning stage. Attention to the 3D static model was found to associate more to the attention to the interactive type. The correlation and regression analyses found that the cognitive effort to integrate information about the static 3D model was the key predictor for the learning achievement. LSA showed that high achievers displayed a higher chance of looking back to the static 3D model from other AOIs. The visual pattern analysis suggested that a guidance to connect information delivered by the static and the animated visual representations is necessary for complex conceptual learning. • Visual attention to the augmented 3D static objects predicted learning achievement. • Visual attentions to the 3D static and interactive models were highly correlated. • Low achievers attended more to the interactive 3D objects. • High achievers looked back to the static 3D object from other AOIs more frequently. • High achievers made more sequential transitions between text and 3D objects. [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]

An antagonistic relationship is traditionally seen as existing between eco-education and technology, with conventional instructional approaches usually characterized by a commentator guiding students in field learning. Unfortunately, in this passive learning approach, the discovery of rich ecological resources in eco-environments to stimulate positive emotions and experiences is often condensed into a “sightseeing”. Therefore, precise and systematic guidance focused on providing a rich learning experience is needed in field learning and eco-education. Based on Kolb's experiential learning theory, the current study develops an eco-discovery AR-based learning model (EDALM) which is implemented in an eco-discovery AR-based learning system (EDALS). In a field experiment at a botanical garden, 21 middle school students constitute three groups participated in a learning activity using different learning types and media. Quantitative results indicate that, compared to the human-guidance-only model, EDALS successfully stimulates positive emotions and improved learning outcomes among learners. In post-activity interviews, students indicated they found the exploration mode provided by the proposed system to be more interesting and helpful to their learning in school. The use of attractive technologies increase students' willingness not only to learn more about the environment, but also to develop a more positive emotional attachment to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential effects of online student-constructed tests (SCT) and student-generated questions (SGQ) strategies on knowledge construction in term of the breadth, depth, interconnectivity and elaboration of knowledge were examined via a quasi-experimental research design. Two classes of undergraduates (N = 65) participated and were randomly assigned to two different treatment groups. An online system supporting the associated learning activities for the respective groups was developed. The results from the ANCOVA showed that students who engaged in SCT activities generated questions that covered significantly more concepts, involved significantly more levels of subordinate concepts, and built significantly more links between clusters of study topics, as compared to those in the SGQ group. Moreover, significantly more students in the SCT group engaged in item revision behavior than those in the SGQ group, and a majority of students in the SCT group exhibited item sequencing behavior, both of which are deemed indicative of knowledge elaboration. Suggestions and implications for instructional implementation, online system development and future studies are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online educational content is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. In prior studies it has been reported that students prefer weblectures with a visible lecturer over weblectures consisting of audio and slides only. Anticipated was that the amount of attention students pay to a weblecture is relevant for this preference. A study was conducted to see whether lecturer-visibility was related to reported attention for a weblecture. Lecturer's appeal was expected to be a moderator in this relation. Eighty-eight participants viewed two different clips of weblectures in one of three visibility-modes where the lecturer was visible in a large or a small frame, and where the slides were large or small. After watching the lecture their opinion was asked about their attention and, after the second lecture, to compare their attention to the first lecture. The two weblectures were analysed separately. Weblectures of six different lecturers were used, integrated in a web-application so participants could participate from home. Nine other variables, that could influence attention, were used as control variables in analysis. For the first weblecture no differences on reported attention were found between the visibility-modes. For the second weblecture participants reported significantly more attention for the condition in which a large image of the lecturer was shown than for the condition in which a small image of the lecturer was shown. Lecturer's appeal was found not to moderate the relation between the visibility of the lecturer and reported attention. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. [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 aim of this study was attempting to investigate the outcome of critical thinking achievement of learners when its development is infused into subject teaching with pedagogical and technological support. A total of 124 junior secondary students participated in the three-year trial teaching in Integrated Humanities subject. Flipped classroom strategy was implemented to engage learners in online pre-lesson learning preparation, in-class group discussion inside digital classroom and after-class extended learning using social learning platform. The critical thinking tests found that the students had good performance in the tasks on hypothesis identification, induction and deduction; and some achievements in the tasks on explanation and evaluation. It was found that students needed more time to develop capacities of deduction, explanation and evaluation. The semi-structured interviews found that the teachers and students valued the pedagogical way of providing guidance for students' group sharing for fostering critical thinking skills development. Three implications are discussed to shed light on the infusion of critical thinking skills development into the process of domain knowledge learning, the deployment of appropriate pedagogy to mobilize learners to engage in learning process, and the use of appropriate technology to facilitate learning process inside and outside of classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors use physical concepts to investigate cognitive elaboration using a commercial game-based review teaching method versus a lecture-based method. Experiments involved two popular casual games: Cut the Rope (pendulum concept) and Angry Bird Space (circular motion), with concept maps and multiple-choice tests used as assessment tools. Our goal was to analyze concept reinforcement and reorganization via commercial games for a group of junior high school students. A total of 83 students (15–16 years old), were randomly assigned to an experimental group (review using commercial casual games) or a control group (lecture-based review). Our results suggest that (a) the games supported the elaboration potential of learned physical concepts as measured by concept maps, and (b) concept maps are more suitable than multiple-choice tests for estimating the effects of commercial games on cognitive elaboration. Three key design features of commercial games that can support cognitive elaboration of physical concepts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video games possess many unique features that facilitate learning. Meanwhile, teaching about evolution is never an easy task due to the existence of some barriers to its learning. Virtual Age , therefore, has been developed in an attempt to harness the power of gaming to increase student understanding of biological evolution. The aim of this study was to examine whether Virtual Age is effective for learning about evolution and to further explore the interplay of student concept learning, gaming performance, and in-game behaviors. A total of 62 7th graders took part in the study, and significant findings were revealed. The students did learn by playing Virtual Age , and their long-term knowledge retention was promising. The in-game behaviors, such as times and duration of viewing the relevant information embedded in Virtual Age , were significantly related to gaming performance (game score), which subsequently influenced learning outcomes. Moreover, the results of cluster analysis indicated that three clusters of low learning outcomes/low gaming performance, high learning outcomes, and high gaming performance emerged. Overall, Virtual Age is an effective game for learning about evolution based on its sound and sophisticated design. Implications derived from the study and suggestions for future work are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rigorous studies of the impact of digital games on student learning remain relatively rare, as do studies of games as supports for learning difficult, core curricular concepts in the context of normal classroom practices. This study uses a blocked, cluster randomized controlled trial design to test the impact of a digital game, played as homework prior to instruction, and associated supplemental instructional activities, on middle grade students' understanding of the process of photosynthesis. The role of the teacher as a potential moderator of the game's impact on student outcomes was also investigated, using Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Secondary Edition (CLASS-S) observations as a measure of instructional quality. Study findings demonstrate that the intervention did not have a significant impact on student understanding of photosynthesis. The interaction of treatment teachers' CLASS-S scores and students' average photosynthesis assessment scores approached significance. This study suggests that when digital games are used as a step in the process of learning difficult conceptual material, teachers may need support and guidance to make productive connections between in-game experiences and the target concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a combination of survey and student record data from a first year university economics principles class, we look at the characteristics of students who are attending face-to-face lectures, versus those students who choose to view these same lectures via online lecture recordings. The survey includes the Biggs (2001) Revised Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) on 'deep'versus 'surface' learning methods, which we use to see how these different learning approaches may be related to attendance at lectures. The econometric evidence presented here suggests that lecture attendance is positively affected by whether or not the student employs a deep approach to learning. There is also some evidence that students treat face-to-face lectures and viewing these lectures online as substitutes, rather than complements, to learning. We end with some tentative evidence on whether the chosen mode of lecture delivery ultimately makes a difference to a student's final mark in the unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical reading is required for information literacy in the 21st century. However, how students read and process conflicting information regarding controversial issues is still not clear. Using eye-tracking technology, this exploratory study aimed to identify visual behavior patterns that characterized critical reading strategies when students processed conflicting information about socio-scientific issues, and to examine relationships among students' visual behavior, reading strategies, and reading task outcomes. Forty-eight undergraduate and graduate students participated and read conflicting texts about food-science issues. The conflicting texts were presented in the traditional Chinese language. Participants' eye movements were tracked during the entire reading process and their self-reported critical reading strategies, recall, and opinions on the issues were collected right after reading. Pearson's correlation analyses, lag sequential analyses, and content analyses were used to analyze the data. Results showed that participants with higher scores on self-reported critical reading strategies tended to pay more attention to reasoning information in conflicting reports and to include more judgments in their responses. Further, two significant visual behavior patterns were identified for critical reading: (1) after a pause for thinking or resting, critical readers' visual attention shifted directly back to reasoning information; and (2) critical readers' visual attention shifted between reasoning and data information. These two visual behavior patterns suggested that data inspection is important for critical reasoning about conflicting information. This study provided evidence for the applicability of eye-tracking technology in assessing critical reading strategies and relationships between eye-tracking data and self-reported critical reading strategies. Findings can contribute to the future design of adaptive learning systems and teaching of critical reading strategies. • Visual behavior revealed cognitive process of conflicting issues reading. • Higher critical readers paid more visual attention to reasoning information. • Self-reported reading strategy was related to critical judgment performance. • Different visual patterns were revealed by more and less critical readers. • Data observation and reasoning were critical for judging conflicting issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted for creating digital classrooms to support students to develop information literacy competency and critical thinking skills through domain knowledge learning in digital classrooms. A total of 107 students from four Secondary 1 classes were invited from a secondary school in Hong Kong to participate in the study. In the 13-week trial teaching, every three students shared a Tablet PC for learning two topics in the Integrated Humanities subject. The pre- and post-tests of the two target subject topics found that the students had a statistically significant growth in domain knowledge. The three identical information literacy tests and critical thinking tests throughout the trial teaching found that the students had a statistically significant growth in information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. The semi-structured interviews found that the students and teachers positively perceived the effectiveness of the pedagogical designs of the digital classrooms on supporting the development of information literacy competency and critical thinking skills. Three implications are drawn for enhancing the pedagogical designs in digital classrooms that put emphasis on fostering students' development of information literacy competency and critical thinking skills through day-to-day domain knowledge learning in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Teachers and students often consider learning programming a difficult pursuit. Face-to-face learning alone cannot provide effective teaching or efficient solutions for learning. A case teaching model can make students active in programming courses, even as it relies on solid learning theory and pedagogical strategies. This paper reports a study based on a case teaching model in C/C++ programming. The Laboratory Animal System (LAS) is a standalone case for management of laboratory animals. This paper includes an overview of LAS architectural design and user interface by C/C++ and presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the model, as well as its implications for learning computer programming. The case method provides an interactive learning environment for students. Based on a survey of student feedback, students can learn C/C++ programming and gain knowledge more quickly and effectively using the case teaching model than through some traditional methods of teaching. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Geospatial technologies offer access to geospatial information via digital representations, such as digital maps, and tools for interaction with those representations. The question is whether geography lessons with geospatial technologies really contribute to the development of students' geospatial thinking, in particular geospatial relational thinking, as is suggested in the literature about geospatial technologies in secondary education. This paper reports about the outcomes of a quasi-experimental research project, in which a geography lesson series with geospatial technologies was compared with a conventional geography lesson series that had the same content. Although the lesson series covered only three lessons, the data showed that the lesson series with geospatial technologies contributed significantly more to the development of students' geospatial relational thinking than the conventional lesson series. The effect size was ‘medium large’. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]