Frontline Learning Research (E-Journal - EARLI, European Association for Research on Learning)
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256 research outputs found
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Addressing boundary conditions of cognitive and motivational effects of gamified learning
Full text linkThere is a growing interest in developing gamified learning solutions to address educational challenges. However, learning is highly influenced by the conditions in which it takes place (e.g., does gamified learning in a laboratory setting replicate the outcomes of gamified learning online at home?). Hence, it is crucial to understand the boundary conditions of different learning contexts to effectively implement gamified interventions that provide optimal learner support. This work contributes to such an understanding by assessing how general contextual aspects of three studies on gamified learning influence cognitive learning and motivational outcomes. Therefore, we re-examined the results of two earlier published online studies (Study 1: n=285; Study 2: n=61) and compared the results to a recently conducted laboratory study (Study 3: n=121), all of which employed the same associative learning task. Comparing results through a Bayesian lens, we find that motivational outcomes induced by gamification differ substantially between contexts. In contrast, cognitive learning outcomes seem comparatively robust across different contextual factors, with some indication of subtle influences in agreement with cognitive learning theories. Implications are discussed for future empirical research on learning, highlighting how a better understanding of boundary conditions of gamified learning interventions could open perspectives for context-aware educational interventions
Analyzing teachers’ scripts from teachers’ reflections after they tried to encourage students’ flexible mathematical thinking
Full text linkTeachers play a key role in promoting flexible mathematical thinking in society. There is a growing need to develop better methods for both pre- and in-service teacher training, but not enough is so far understood about what knowledge and skills teachers use in practical teaching situations. The means for investigating this are few. A new analytic framework was developed using abductive content analysis to investigate signs of script restructuring and construction as they appear in teachers' written reflections reporting their experiences in applying novel methods in their classrooms. Scripts are mental knowledge structures combining formal professional knowledge and the knowledge teachers use in practical situations with representations, assessments, and predictions of different classroom events. Scripts enable teachers to make (rapid) snap decisions to structure their teaching and manage classrooms to facilitate students' attention towards objectives, activities, and information that support learning. In this multiple case qualitative study, six teachers enrolled on the “Flexible and Adaptive Arithmetic Skills in Primary School” course, part of the JoMa (Towards Flexible Mathematics) in-service training program, teaching assignment and end-of-course reflections were investigated in depth. The goal was to advance the application of script theory to the study of teachers' actions and thinking as they engage in teaching intended to promote flexible mathematical thinking. The results suggest that signs of script restructuring and construction can be investigated post-hoc from textual accounts, scripts may have a considerable influence on teachers’ actions and thinking, and by engaging in teaching practice in real-life settings and reflecting on these accumulating experiences, processes leading to script development may be initiated. The results suggest that the analytic framework developed is functional and robust, paving the way for future investigations with larger samples. This study provided a more profound understanding of how online in-service education can support teachers to develop scripts supporting their competences to teach mathematical flexibility.
Supporting Integration of Multiple Source Perspectives Through Dialogic Argumentation
Full text linkWe report a study examining, for the first time, the effectiveness of engagement in dialogic argumentation in relation to its ability to promote integration of multiple source perspectives in an argumentive writing task after reading controversial multiple texts. Sixty-four primary school students engaged in a dialog-based intervention aiming to support them to learn to argue. Participants’ argument skills have been improved and transferred to a writing task completed after reading novel multiple texts on new, non-intervention, topics. In particular, the experimental group participants showed gains in their ability to integrate multiple source perspectives in an argumentive writing task after reading controversial multiple texts, compared with a control group which engaged in business-as-usual school curriculum. Microgenetic data revealed a progressive development of experimental participants’ integration skill throughout their engagement in the argumentive discourse activity. The findings have important educational implications. They show that learning to argue by engaging in dialogic argumentation is a promising pathway for supporting the ability to integrate multiple source perspectives after reading controversial multiple texts
Exploring Math Moments: Middle-schoolers’ Phases of Problem-solving, Executive Functions in Practice, and Collaborative Problem Solving
Full text linkCollaborative problem solving (CPS) has been shown to both engage and benefit students’ learning of mathematics. However, there is evidence that group work is not always easy to facilitate, in part because educators lack details about learners’ engagement during group work: the processes of problem solving involved, and how these are engaged. In this exploratory study, we focused on these processes in the moments of related math activity, or math moments, engaged by two groups of interested, urban, middle-school aged students during four sessions of work in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) environment. We examined three phases of their problem solving: Exploring, Constructing, and Checking. In addition, to further describe the students’ cognitive and behavioral engagement, we considered both the process of students' use of executive functions (EF), during problem solving, termed executive functions in practice (EFP), as well as the stage of CPS (Participation, Cooperation, and Collaboration), during phases of problem solving. We learned that the relation between each phase of problem solving, categories of EFP, and stages of CPS vary; for example, the problem-solving phase of Exploring was found to have a more positive effect on EFP and CPS than either Constructing or Checking. Implications for educational practice, and next steps for related research are described
Student teachers’ opportunities to learn through observation, own practice and feedback on the practice while in field practice placements: a graphical model approach
Full text linkField practice placement is a crucial part of teacher education, as it affords a real-life context, where teacher and teacher-related skills can be enacted and trained. The present study examined the associations between student teacher opportunities to learn through observation, own practice and the receiving of feedback of said practice, while in field practice placements through a teacher education programme. Chain graph models were used to analyse data from 560 Danish student teachers who had just completed field practice at one of three levels. Results showed that opportunities to learn through observation of fellow students and other teachers was negatively associated with level of field practice, and thus was reported less and less the further along students were in the programme, while opportunities to learn through own practice was positively associated with level of field practice. Opportunities to learn through receiving feedback on own practice was associated with level of field practice only via opportunities to learn through own practice. Results did not reveal gender or age-wise inequity in the opportunities to learn afforded in the field practice. Teacher education programmes could benefit from placing additional focus on opportunities to learn through observation in the later field practice placements.
Employing the intellectual virtues to better understand argumentation interventions in education
Full text linkArgumentation-based classroom interventions are a growing alternative for stimulating conceptual learning, thinking, and communicative skills. However, not all classroom argumentation is desired, nor does every argumentation design lead students to develop their abilities and understanding. In the educational literature, productive argumentation has been associated particularly with deliberation due to the design properties that deliberative practices demand from students, such as collaborating towards a goal, revising one’s own opinion, listening to others, and changing their minds when it is necessary to arrive at a collective decision or problem resolution. We contend that what makes deliberation productive is not argumentation in itself, but how a certain type of design scaffolds students into virtuous-like behavior, which can be the enabling condition for productive argumentation in classroom activities. Through the exploration of three cases of classroom argumentation and discussion experiences, we hypothesize that virtuous-like behavior may serve as an enabling condition for each intervention. In particular, intellectually humble behaviors could be scaffolded within these interventions because all three create the proper environment for students to revise their own positions, listen carefully to others, and change their minds in light of appropriate reasoning or new evidence. Employing an intellectual virtues framework, advances our understanding of how to design classroom environments for productive argumentation. This paper thus presents a novel and pioneering approach to understanding argumentation in the classroom by incorporating the concept of intellectual virtues, bridging the gap between virtues and traditional research, and offering fresh perspectives on the field
Learning to change the world: Dis/continuity in adolescents’ learning across climate activism and life-wide contexts
No full textFeeling the urgency of the climate crisis and judging current societal (re)action insufficient, young adults increasingly engage in climate activism. While individual learning is not the objective of climate activism, research has documented that young adults learn in climate activism movements. This study traces young adults’ learning across climate activism and different life-wide contexts, explicating dis/continuities in learning. Content-analysis of interviews with twelve self-defined climate activists indicates that in and across climate activism and other life-contexts young adults report a) learning about the climate, activism, intersectionality, democracy and system structures, b) learning to organize, socialize and take perspective(s), while c) progressively expressing who and how they want to be(come). Young adults described experiencing discontinuities between the context of their climate activism and other contexts such as education, friends and family, and their efforts to re-establish continuities are an important part of their learning. When young adults experience discontinuity across contexts structurally, they keep their climate activism to themselves and/or disengage from education, among others. Making space in education more explicitly for sharing and shaping what matters to youth seems desirable.
Effects of Study-Integrated Well-Being Course Intervention for Different Burnout and Engagement Profiles of University Students
Full text linkAs the increase in university students’ mental health problems poses significant challenges to education, new research-based ways to support students’ well-being in higher education are urgently needed. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been shown to be effective in enhancing different aspects of well-being in a variety of contexts. Although study burnout has been shown to have detrimental impacts on students’ well-being and studying, not much is known about the person-oriented features of burnout risk in relation to ACT-based intervention outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of an online ACT-based course on different aspects of university students’ well-being and study ability in latent groups of students that had different levels of study burnout and engagement at the beginning of the intervention. The results of latent profile analysis (LPA) showed that students (N=352) represented four profiles at the beginning of the course: indifferent (37.8%), engaged (29%), engaged-inefficacious (13.6%), and burned-out (19.6%). The results of mixed ANOVA with repeated measures showed that psychological flexibility, well-being, study engagement and organised studying increased, and study burnout risk decreased in the whole sample of course-participating students. The changes in students’ exhaustion, well-being, psychological flexibility, and organised studying did not differ between the four burnout and engagement profiles. The profiles differed in the changes of cynicism, inadequacy and engagement. The results of this study provide new knowledge of the person-oriented features of study burnout and indicate that ACT-based course interventions can be effective in enhancing different profiles representing university students’ well-being
Inclusive Excellence in Practice: Integrating Equitable, Consequential Learning and an Inclusive Climate in Higher Education Classrooms and Institutions
Full text linkIn education, initiatives aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusivity, and justice (DEIJ) are often conceptualized and implemented separately from those addressing students’ and faculty’s learning — and the reverse is also true. In this theoretical paper with an empirical illustration, we present a holistic framework based on our experience with a comprehensive change initiative. The I2 Framework posits that DEIJ and learning goals need to be addressed simultaneously and at multiple, intersecting organizational levels. Through a systems approach, I2 integrates change activity across two dimensions: one representing goals of reform (DEIJ and improved learning) and another representing levels of organizational change (classroom and department/organization). I2 integrates the work of creating equitable, consequential learning opportunities in the classroom and the work of creating an inclusive climate at the departmental/organizational level, emphasizing their inherent relatedness. We provide an empirical example based on design-based implementation research and related mixed methods analyses of a multi-year change project in an engineering department at a large, public university in the United States. The example highlights a need to shift the nature of this work, how we do this work, and the environment and culture within which we do this work at both the classroom level and the department level. The example also illustrates ways that elements of the change initiative intersected with existing institutional practices, leading some innovations to succeed and others to be resisted. The I2 Framework provides guidance to practitioners, policymakers, and leaders working towards equitable, consequential learning at the classroom level and an inclusive climate at departmental and institutional levels
Different Media Education Approaches Predict Distinct Aspects of Digital Citizenship
Full text linkBased on a national survey of 8,915 students, this study examines the prevalence of different types of media education practices in Swiss upper secondary schools and their relationship with students’ online civic engagement and respectful online behavior. Descriptive statistics reveal that schools place little emphasis on media education and that current practices focus primarily on protective media education approaches. Results from multi-level hierarchical multiple regression analysis show that expressive media activities positively predict students’ online civic engagement but not respectful online behavior, whereas addressing topics such as the ‘dangers of the internet’ predicts respectful online behavior but not online civic engagement. These findings underscore the challenge of promoting digital citizenship education, which simultaneously encourages civic engagement and respectful behavior. Additionally, there is a significant negative correlation between online civic engagement and respectful behavior, suggesting that digital citizenship frameworks encompassing both dimensions are more prescriptive than empirical in nature and that diverse digital citizenship profiles may exist, with some being more respectful butt less civically engaged, and others being more civically engaged but less respectful