Search

Introduction: Media comparison studies examining the effectiveness of immersive virtual reality in education have yielded inconclusive findings, leaving the question of its impact on learning compared to conventional media unanswered. To address this issue, our study employs a novel approach that combines media comparison with an investigation on the influence of broader educational context. Methods: In the experiment, 262 students from two distinct types of lower secondary schools—comprehensive school and multi‐year gymnasium (a selective academic school)—participated. The students received a lesson on topography and contour line interpretation, using either an immersive virtual environment or a PowerPoint slideshow. A transfer test was carried out before, immediately after, and 1 month after the lesson to measure knowledge application. Results: The impact of the media (immersive virtual reality vs. PowerPoint slideshow) on learning outcomes was found to be minimal, with no clear advantage of one over the other in any experimental condition. In contrast, a significant influence on learning gains was observed due to school type. Multi‐year gymnasium students consistently outperformed comprehensive school students in the pre‐test and demonstrated greater learning gains, regardless of the learning media. Conclusion: The present study employs an innovative approach by integrating a comparative analysis of different media types with an investigation into the impact of learner characteristics. By including students from distinct types of schools, the study provides insights into the differential effects of immersive virtual reality in varied educational contexts. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Media comparison studies typically assess the effectiveness of immersive virtual reality as a learning medium in comparison to other instructional methods in education.The findings of these studies differ markedly.Numerous factors impact learning outcomes in an immersive virtual environment. What this paper adds: Recommendation that research in the field should explore not only if but also when and how IVR learning is effective.Evidence that learning achievements may not be affected by the medium used.Evidence that the type of school can significantly influence learning gains.Evidence that cognitive dispositions, such as spatial abilities, can be another factor that influence learning outcomes. Implications for practice: A technology‐centred approach alone does not allow for a proper evaluation of the learning gain potential of IVR, learner characteristics and broader educational context should also be taken into account.IVR as a learning medium may not be appropriate for all students and every educational setting.To ensure reliable evaluation of learning gains, it is necessary to align the content and format of the intervention in both learning mediums as closely as possible.Measuring learning gains not only immediately after the intervention but also with a significant time delay can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday life, we often view objects through a limited aperture (e.g., soccer players on TV or cars slipping into our blind spot on a busy road), where objects often move out of view and reappear in a different place later. We modelled this situation in a series of multiple object tracking (MOT) experiments, in which we introduced a cover on the edges of the observed area and manipulated its width. This method introduced systematic occlusions, which were longer than those used in previous MOT studies. Experiment 1 (N = 50) showed that tracking under such conditions is possible, although difficult. An item-level analysis confirmed that people made more errors in targets that were covered longer and more often. In Experiment 2 (N = 50), we manipulated the tracking workload and found that the participants were less affected by the cover when the tracking load was low. In Experiment 3 (N = 50), we asked the participants to keep track of the objects' identities (multiple identity tracking [MIT]). Although MIT is subjectively more demanding, memorising identities improved performance in the most difficult cover conditions. Contrary to previous reports, we also found that even partial occlusions negatively affected tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are insufficientsuitable methodsfor assessing pupils’ social competence in the Czech Republic. The study aims to verify the psychometric properties of the instrument called The Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment and initiate the process of adapting it to the Czech environment. The instrument is intended for teachers (or other teaching staff) who record their observations of the frequency of pupils’ given manifestations of social behaviour. The scale was answered by 15 class teachers and 15 teaching assistants who completed it for 307 pupils attending grades 1 to 5 from 15 different classes, with one class teacher and one teaching assistant from each class. Inter-rater agreement and confirmatory factor analysis were computed, revealing a low fit of the original instrument to the data. For that reason, the original version was modified, and a reduced version of the scale was created while preserving the original subscales. A limitation of the study is the fact that the full validation of the instrument was not conducted. The subsequent step in the validation process is verifying the instrument’s validity by another diagnostic method. The instrument is intended for use in school counselling practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to define and validate the criteria for characterizing possible and probable cognitive deficits based on the psychometric approach using the Uniform data set Czech version (UDS-CZ 2.0) to reduce the rate of misdiagnosis. We computed the prevalence of low scores on the 14 subtests of UDS-CZ 2.0 in a normative sample of healthy older adults and validated criteria for possible and probable cognitive impairment on the sample of amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients. The misclassification rate of the validation sample using psychometrically derived criteria remained low: for classification as possible impairment, we found 66–76% correct classification in the clinical sample and only 2–8% false positives in the healthy control validation sample, similar results were obtained for probable cognitive impairment. Our findings offer a psychometric approach and a computational tool to minimize the misdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment compared to traditional criteria for MCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Children with ADHD often tend to underperform in school. This partial study aimed to find out if the school experience of adults with higher ADHD symptomatology differs from those with lower and no ADHD symptomatology. Method: Based on the results of ASRS questionnaires, the respondents were divided into three groups (low, medium, and high) according to the manifested ADHD symptomatology. We explored their school experiences by looking at their grades for behavior at school, notes regarding their attendance, school expulsion, and other school experiences. Results: Children with higher ADHD symptomatology were significantly more likely to be expelled, receive notes for bad behavior, disturbing or forgetting as well as receive reprimands from teachers. Conclusion: Our results show that children with increased ADHD symptomatology experience more difficulties with school behavior, they are frequently reprimanded, and they do receive more negative feedback regarding their attendance and tardiness from teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on education generally find that higher education has a positive impact on various aspects of life. Nevertheless, studies focused on elderly people and their psychosocial health and development seldom view higher education as an important factor. Our aim was to explore the relation between higher education and ego integrity, a measure based on Erikson's concept of psychological maturity in later life. We used four national samples of non-institutionalized elderly people from Cameroon (N = 238), China (N = 254), Czech Republic (N = 167), and Germany (N = 240). Relationships between ego integrity and several possible moderator variables were tested by multivariate regressions in each sample. Between-subject ANOVA was employed to test differences in ego integrity between university educated and non-university educated people. We found that ego integrity is affected by culture in interaction with gender and the level of education attained. University-educated people reported higher ego integrity than persons with lower education in three of four cultural samples, which suggests a relatively stable relationship between university education and ego integrity when controlling for gender, age, and working status. These findings highlight the importance of education in late adulthood. In terms of policies and practice, they underscore the importance of reduction of educational inequalities as well as desirability of improved access to higher education, expansion of opportunities for the achievement of complete education in later life, and facilitation and support of lifelong learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]