Frontline Learning Research (E-Journal - EARLI, European Association for Research on Learning)
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256 research outputs found
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Adults’ ability to interpret covariation data presented in bar graphs depends on the context of the problem
Full text linkThe ability to correctly interpret data is an important skill in modern knowledge societies. The present study investigates adults’ ability to interpret covariation data presented in bar graphs. Drawing on previous findings that show that the problem context influences the interpretation of contingency tables (grounded and concrete problems are easier than abstract ones) and based on findings from the literature on motivated reasoning (confirming problems are easier than disconfirming ones), we present N = 111 undergraduates with bar graphs in either grounded (confirming or disconfirming) or abstract contexts. Our results show that only grounded problems in confirming contexts are easier than abstract ones; grounded problems in disconfirming contexts are more challenging than abstract ones. Overall, the interpretation of bar graphs is difficult: Even in our sample of educated college students, correct performance did not exceed 50%. Our results support earlier findings regarding the context dependency of data-interpretation skills, and they suggest that relatively minor task variations have an impact on reasoners’ interpretations of bar graphs
It’s Better to Enjoy Learning than Playing: Motivational Effects of an Educational Live Action Role-playing Game
Full text linkGame-based learning is supposed to motivate learners. However, to what degree does motivation driven by interest in playing an instructional game affect learning outcomes compared to motivation driven by interest in the very learning process? This is not known. In this study with a unique design and intervention, young adults (N = 128; a heterogeneous sample) learned how to control an electro-mechanical device in a 40-minute-long learning session integrated into a 2-hour-long educational live action role-playing game (edu-LARP). Edu-LARPs are supposedly engaging games where players take part in team role-playing by physically enacting characters in a fictional universe. In our edu-LARP, players had to understand how the to-be-learned device worked in order to win the game. Departing from typical game-based learning research, learning- and playing-related variables were assessed for each learner separately (i.e., a within-subject design). Affective-motivational factors related to playing (rather than learning) predicted learning outcomes in a positive, but considerably weaker, way compared to learning-related, affective-motivational factors. Developed interest in LARP-like games was primarily related to enjoying the game rather than better learning outcomes; whereas, developed interest in the instructional domain was primarily related to enjoyment of learning and better learning outcomes. Overall, autonomous motivation to play was connected to higher learning outcomes, but this connection was weak.
 
Facilitating Diagnostic Competences in Simulations in Higher Education: A Framework and a Research Agenda
No full textDiagnosis is a prerequisite for successful professional problem-solving: A physician identifies an appropriate treatment based on a diagnosis of the patient’s disease, and a teacher selects an appropriate learning task based on an assessment of the student’s prior knowledge. Education in academic professions such as medicine or teaching is often focuses on the acquisition of conceptual knowledge from lectures and books; opportunities for students to engage in practical diagnostic situations are typically rare. However, applying such conceptual knowledge in diagnostic activities is regarded as necessary for developing diagnostic competences. In this article, we focus on simulations in which students can actively engage in practicing diagnostic activities concerning cases from professional practice. We review and link research perspectives on diagnostic competences, their components and their development. This is partly done by exploring the commonalities and differences in research on diagnostic competences in medicine and teaching. Then, we present approaches to simulation, followed by different types of instructional support in such simulations. In particular, we focus on different forms of scaffolding during problem-solving, and on the possibly complementary roles of expository forms of instruction in these kinds of environments. Building on the perspectives reviewed, we propose a framework for fostering diagnostic competences in simulations in higher education and outline an interdisciplinary research approach concerning the instructional design of such simulations
Production and Perception of Classroom Disturbances: A new approach to investigating the perspectives of teachers and students
Full text linkClassroom disturbances impair the quality of teaching and learning, and they can be a source of strain for both teachers and students. Some studies indicate, however, that not everyone involved gets equally disturbed by the same occurrences. Altogether, there is still little solid knowledge about the teachers’ and the students’ subjective perception of disturbance. Moreover, rater effects may have confounded the findings available. Addressing these desiderata, the SUGUS study investigates two elements of classroom disturbances within an interactionist framework: the incidence of deviant behaviour shown by particular target students, and the intensity of disturbance as subjectively perceived by teachers, by classmates, and by the targets themselves. For this purpose, we conducted a questionnaire survey among 85 primary-school class teachers and 1412 students. The data were analysed by means of a two-level correlated trait – correlated method minus one [CT-C(M-1)] model. This relatively novel statistical procedure has only rarely been applied in educational research so far. It made it possible to determine the respondents’common view on classroom disturbances as well as the rater-specific perspectives. The results indicate that increasing deviance coincides with increasing distraction and annoyance – but mainly in a relatively small intersection of the different perspectives. Beyond that, the analysis revealed substantial rater effects which explain 30 to 61% of variance in teacher ratings, for instance. The author discusses likely reasons why disturbances are perceived so divergently
Plunging into a world? A novel approach to undergraduates’ metaphors of reading
Full text linkAlthough there is considerable research on and knowledge about students’ conceptualizations of learning or academic practices and skills, the variability of these conceptualizations has been consistently neglected. In the present study, we address this variability in the field of academic reading with the help of a novel approach. Drawing on qualitative metaphor analysis, we report a detailed system of students’ conceptual metaphors of reading. Our specific methodological approach to identify the structure of these conceptual metaphors allows to analyze subjective agency on a lexical as well as grammatical level. The conceptual metaphors we identified by this method are markedly variable, although they create an overall impression of medium to low agency, that is a reader who is only weakly active or potent. Interrater reliability of the coding system was very good. We also report and analyze the frequency of the conceptual metaphors in a sample of 143 texts written by bachelor students
From monocontextual to multicontextual transfer: Organizational determinants of the intention to transfer generic information literacy competences to multiple contexts
Full text linkAn important goal of educational designers is to achieve long-term transfer of learning that is the learner's application of newly acquired competencies. Extensive research during more than a century shows that especially in formal educational settings this fundamental aspect of education often occurs poorly or not at all, leading to what is called a Transfer Problem. To address this transfer problem, the present study examines intentions to transfer learning to multiple contexts; this focus on multiple transfer contexts extends previous research focusing on a single transfer context, typically the workplace. The present study aimed to estimate the influence of five organizational variables (peer support, supervisor support, opportunity to use, openness to change, and feedback) on transfer intention in two different transfer contexts: study and work. Participants were 303 students at an open university attending a course in information literacy. The model was tested using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that before starting the course supervisor support and feedback were considered the strongest predictors of intention to transfer new learning in both the study and the work contexts. This research is amongst the first in the training literature to address multi-contextuality and examines intentions to transfer generic competences to the two transfer contexts study and work within one single study
Students’ pride orientation in a learner-focused school setting: An exploratory study
No full textIn the past decades, schools have become more autonomous and open learning environments. It therefore seems increasingly important for educational research to also consider contextual influences by including autonomous learning settings in its investigations. Studying the positive activating emotion of pride seems useful to learn more about the effects of this schooling as pride results from exactly those aspects promoted by autonomous learning: Self-evaluation, reflection, self-responsibility and attribution. Moreover, pride becomes relevant for a deeper understanding of students’ learning and achievement as pride promotes the desire to repeat already performed achievements in the future. Regarding the growing support of individual learning in schools, the present study investigates objects of pride of students attending a school that promotes autonomous, non-competitive, individualized and cooperative learning. Students of this school plan their timetables and learning process individually and document it in learning logbooks in which they furthermore can state once a week what they are proud of. In total, 1063 pride statements from 134 students were collected from the learning logbooks. A complementary study, collecting students’ pride statements detached from the learning logbooks, identified 254 pride statements. Results show that the pride focus of students at the examined school is learning-oriented. The findings indicate that the specific learning setting of the examined school provides specific school-based pride triggers and thus promotes the learning-oriented pride focus of the students. This paper shall serve as a basis for further research on students’ pride and objects of pride and its potential effects on motivation, achievement and school life
How do doctoral students in STEM fields engage in scientific knowledge practices?
Full text linkKnowledge creation is at the core of scientific endeavour. As early career researchers, doctoral students take part in knowledge creation through engaging in various knowledge practices and make their original contribution to knowledge, and become experts in their particular domain. However, our understanding of what doctoral knowledge practices entails is still insufficient. For this study, a total of 34 doctoral students from STEM fields, including natural sciences, bio- and environmental sciences and medicine were interviewed to gain a better understanding of the kinds of knowledge practices in which doctoral students in the sciences engage. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews, which were qualitatively content analysed. The results showed that the participants mostly described activities that were established everyday knowledge practices of the researcher community (75 %), whereas practices that were innovative (25 %), entailing transformation of the current practices and developing new ones, were less often reported. Moreover, the practices were typically collective, involving the students, their supervisors or other members of their research groups (67 %). Further investigation showed that the participants were typically actively engaged in knowledge practices (79 %) rather than just adapting existing ones (13 %). Perceiving oneself as a bystander was even less typical (8 %). The significance of this study lies in exploring doctoral students’ self-reported knowledge practices in STEM fields, and demonstrates that they perceive themselves as actively and collaboratively engaged in creating knowledge
Students´ reading ability moderates the effects of teachers´ beliefs on students´ reading progress
Full text linkTeachers’ beliefs about teaching have been found to affect students’ learning growth. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of teachers’ constructivist and direct-transmissive beliefs on learners’ reading progress and whether these effects are influenced by prior student achievement. We measured constructivist and direct-transmissive beliefs of 29 teachers and the progress in reading fluency and reading comprehension of their students (N = 568) at eight points of measurement over one school year. Results of three-level latent growth curve modeling revealed that teachers’ constructivist beliefs were positively related to learners’ progress in reading fluency but had no general effect on growth in reading comprehension. Nevertheless, the relation between constructivist beliefs and individual learners’ progress in reading comprehension was affected by students’ level of ability. Teachers with stronger constructivist beliefs effected higher learning growth for high ability compared to low ability learners. No effects were found for direct-transmissive beliefs. Using longitudinal modelling of student learning, this study adds a more differentiated view to findings concerning the effects of teacher beliefs. Results show that effects vary depending on subject of learning (fluency vs. comprehension), and that effects of teacher beliefs may depend on students’ level of ability
Learning on the job: Rethinks and realizations about the use of eye tracking in music-reading studies
No full textThe application of new methods and measures in domains with few methodological traditions of that kind often presents researchers with a challenge; they may have to take up the task of developing their understanding of the phenomenon while, at the same time, creating the practices for its study. For us, the method was eye tracking, and the topic, music reading. One key characteristic of music reading is that themusic reader’s gaze moves slightly ahead of the current point of performance. This gap allows the performer to prepare for the upcoming motoric responses. In this paper, we present our 10-year-long path, describing the steps we have taken while studying this “looking ahead” in music reading. We will point out how we have, after both advances as well as setbacks, come to change our views on how best to explain the various components affecting this specific act and how it is best measured. Finally, we discuss some of the lessons we have learned, hoping in this way to provide practical suggestions for others who plan to take up methods from other domains and use them in novel ones