From Tutor Scripts to Talking Sticks: 100 Ways to Differentiate Instruction in K-12 Inclusive Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kluth, Paula; Danaher, Sheila

2010-01-01

Differentiated instruction engages students of all abilities as active learners, decision-makers, and problem solvers--making educational experiences more meaningful for all. This one-of-a-kind book proves that designing differentiated instruction can be simple and fun! Packed with creative adaptation ideas like fidget bags, doodle notes, and…

Still Learning after All These Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanistreet, Paul

2012-01-01

Adult Learners' Week is based on a simple idea--that extolling the achievements of adult learners and promoting the benefits of learning will encourage others to take the plunge. Each year, through thousands of events and award ceremonies, and in media coverage that would cost millions of pounds if purchased as advertising, Adult Learners' Week…

Learner-Learner Interaction during Collaborative Pragmatic Tasks: The Role of Cognitive and Pragmatic Task Demands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, YouJin; Taguchi, Naoko

2016-01-01

Previous task complexity studies have suggested that learners produce more negotiation of meaning opportunities during complex tasks than simple tasks (Robinson, 2011). The present study builds on the existing task complexity literature by examining the impact of task complexity and pragmatic situational demands on the number of learning…

A Program Complexity Metric Based on Variable Usage for Algorithmic Thinking Education of Novice Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuwa, Minori; Kayama, Mizue; Kunimune, Hisayoshi; Hashimoto, Masami; Asano, David K.

2015-01-01

We have explored educational methods for algorithmic thinking for novices and implemented a block programming editor and a simple learning management system. In this paper, we propose a program/algorithm complexity metric specified for novice learners. This metric is based on the variable usage in arithmetic and relational formulas in learner's…

The Effects of Multimedia Task-Based Language Teaching on EFL Learners' Oral L2 Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BavaHarji, Madhubala; Gheitanchian, Mehrnaz; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni

2014-01-01

This study examined the effects of tasks, with varying levels of complexity, i.e. simple, + complex and ++ complex tasks on EFL learners' oral production in a multimedia task-based language teaching environment. 57 EFL adult learners carried out a total of 12 tasks, in sets of four tasks within three different themes and different levels of…

Factors associated with perception of risk of contracting HIV among secondary school female learners in Mbonge subdivision of rural Cameroon

PubMed Central

Tarkang, Elvis Enowbeyang

2014-01-01

Introduction Since learners in secondary schools fall within the age group hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, it is obvious that these learners might be at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. However, little has been explored on the perception of risk of contracting HIV among secondary school learners in Cameroon. This study aimed at examining the perception of risk of contracting HIV among secondary school learners in Mbonge subdivision of rural Cameroon using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as framework. Methods A quantitative, correlational design was adopted, using a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 210 female learners selected through disproportional, stratified, simple random sampling technique, from three participating senior secondary schools. Statistics were calculated using SPSS version 20 software program. Results Only 39.4% of the respondents perceived themselves to be at high risk of contracting HIV, though the majority, 54.0% were sexually active. Multinomial logistic regression analyses show that sexual risk behaviours (p=0.000) and the Integrated Value Mapping (IVM) of the perception components of the HBM are the most significant factors associated with perception of risk of contracting HIV at the level p<0.05. Conclusion The findings of this study can play an instrumental role in the development of effective preventive and interventional messages for adolescents in Cameroon. PMID:25309659

Life Narratives as a Pedagogy for Cultivating Critical Self-Reflection.

PubMed

Kelly, Bridget Turner; Bhangal, Naseeb K

2018-09-01

This chapter provides a framework for using life narratives as a powerful pedagogy to move youth from simple reflection to critical self-reflection. This increases learner agency, generates counter-narratives that challenge dominant norms, and increases learners' awareness of positionality. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Undergraduates Learn Evolution Through Teaching Kindergartners About Blind Mexican Cavefish

PubMed Central

Gross, Joshua B.; Gangidine, Andrew; Schafer, Rachel E.

2017-01-01

The development and implementation of a scientific outreach activity comes with a number of challenges. A successful outreach event must match the sophistication of content to the audience, be engaging, expand the knowledge base for participants, and be inclusive for a diverse audience. Ideally, a successful event will also convey the importance of scientific outreach for future scientists and citizens. In this paper, we present a simple, hands-on guide to a scientific outreach event targeted to kindergarten learners. This activity also pursued a second goal: the inclusion of undergraduate students in the development and delivery of the event. We provided a detailed set of four activities, focusing on the blind Mexican cavefish, which were enthusiastically received by kindergarten audiences. The engagement of undergraduate students in the development of this activity encouraged public outreach involvement and fostered new scientific and communication skills. The format of the outreach event we describe is flexible. We provide a set of guidelines and suggestions for adapting this approach to other biological topics. The activity and approach we describe enables the implementation of effective scientific outreach, using active learning approaches, which benefits both elementary school learners and undergraduate students. PMID:28936469

Challenging Gifted Learners through Children's Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, Margaret A.

1989-01-01

Gifted learners can be challenged by extending and enriching the mandated curriculum through the use of children's literature. Demonstrated is the use of the book "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" as a mechanism for learning about authorship, research skills, story evaluation, simple machines, problem solving, and technological change. (PB)

Classroom Activities: Simple Strategies to Incorporate Student-Centered Activities within Undergraduate Science Lectures

PubMed Central

Lom, Barbara

2012-01-01

The traditional science lecture, where an instructor delivers a carefully crafted monolog to a large audience of students who passively receive the information, has been a popular mode of instruction for centuries. Recent evidence on the science of teaching and learning indicates that learner-centered, active teaching strategies can be more effective learning tools than traditional lectures. Yet most colleges and universities retain lectures as their central instructional method. This article highlights several simple collaborative teaching techniques that can be readily deployed within traditional lecture frameworks to promote active learning. Specifically, this article briefly introduces the techniques of: reader’s theatre, think-pair-share, roundtable, jigsaw, in-class quizzes, and minute papers. Each technique is broadly applicable well beyond neuroscience courses and easily modifiable to serve an instructor’s specific pedagogical goals. The benefits of each technique are described along with specific examples of how each technique might be deployed within a traditional lecture to create more active learning experiences. PMID:23494568

Two Methods for Teaching Simple Visual Discriminations to Learners with Severe Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graff, Richard B.; Green, Gina

2004-01-01

Simple discriminations are involved in many functional skills; additionally, they are components of conditional discriminations (identity and arbitrary matching-to-sample), which are involved in a wide array of other important performances. Many individuals with severe disabilities have difficulty acquiring simple discriminations with standard…

Building a pipeline of talent for operating radio observatories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wingate, Lory M.

2016-07-01

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory's (NRAO) National and International Non-Traditional Exchange (NINE) Program teaches concepts of project management and systems engineering in a focused, nine-week, continuous effort that includes a hands-on build project with the objective of constructing and verifying the performance of a student-level basic radio instrument. The combination of using a project management (PM)/systems engineering (SE) methodical approach based on internationally recognized standards in completing this build is to demonstrate clearly to the learner the positive net effects of following methodical approaches to achieving optimal results. It also exposes the learner to basic radio science theory. An additional simple research project is used to impress upon the learner both the methodical approach, and to provide a basic understanding of the functional area of interest to the learner. This program is designed to teach sustainable skills throughout the full spectrum of activities associated with constructing, operating and maintaining radio astronomy observatories. NINE Program learners thereby return to their host sites and implement the program in their own location as a NINE Hub. This requires forming a committed relationship (through a formal Letter of Agreement), establishing a site location, and developing a program that takes into consideration the needs of the community they represent. The anticipated outcome of this program is worldwide partnerships with fast growing radio astronomy communities designed to facilitate the exchange of staff and the mentoring of under-represented1 groups of learners, thereby developing a strong pipeline of global talent to construct, operate and maintain radio astronomy observatories.

It's not about you: a simple proposition for improving biology education.

PubMed

Wright, Robin

2014-10-01

THE Genetics Society of America's Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education recognizes significant and sustained impact on genetics education. Consistent with her philosophy of linking research and education, the 2014 Awardee Robin Wright includes undergraduate students in all of her research. She seeks to teach how to think like and to actually be a biologist, working in teams and looking at real-world problems. She emphasizes a learner-centered model of classroom work that promotes and enhances lifelong skills, and has transformed biology education at the University of Minnesota through several efforts including developing the interactive, stimulating Foundations of Biology course sequence, encouraging active learning and open-ended research; supporting the construction of Active Learning Classrooms; and establishing Student Learning Outcomes, standards that measure biology education. She serves as founding editor-in-chief of CourseSource, focusing national effort to collect learner-centered, outcomes-based teaching resources in undergraduate biology. Copyright © 2014 by the Genetics Society of America.

Coloring in the Emotional Language of Place

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haigh, Martin

2008-01-01

Making educational places more inviting to learners is a key aspect of Invitational Theory. This paper introduces a simple technique for sensitizing learners and instructors to how their environment affects their feelings and ability to learn. It describes a learning exercise that may be used to assess, evaluate and transform places, to promote…

The Most Frequent Metacognitive Strategies Used in Reading Comprehension among ESP Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khoshsima, Hooshang; Samani, Elham Amiri

2015-01-01

Reading strategies are plans for solving problems encountered during reading while learners are deeply engage with the text. So, comprehension is not a simple decoding of symbols, but a complex multidimensional process in which the leaner draws on previous schemata applying strategies consciously. In fact, metacognitive strategies are accessible…

Teachers' Attitude towards Implementation of Learner-Centered Methodology in Science Education in Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ndirangu, Caroline

2017-01-01

This study aims to evaluate teachers' attitude towards implementation of learner-centered methodology in science education in Kenya. The study used a survey design methodology, adopting the purposive, stratified random and simple random sampling procedures and hypothesised that there was no significant relationship between the head teachers'…

Reading in Multiple Orthographies: Differences and Similarities in Reading in Spanish and English for English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Amanda P.; August, Diane; Calderon, Margarita

2015-01-01

The current study unites multiple theories (i.e., the orthographic depth hypothesis and linguistic grain size theory, the simple view of reading, and the common underlying proficiency model) to explore differences in how 113 fourth-grade Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) approached reading in their native language of Spanish, which is…

The Use of Monolingual Mobile Dictionaries in the Context of Reading by Intermediate Cantonese EFL Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zou, Di; Xie, Haoran; Wang, Fu Lee

2015-01-01

Previous studies on dictionary consultation investigated mainly online dictionaries or simple pocket electronic dictionaries as they were commonly used among learners back then, yet the more updated mobile dictionaries were superficially investigated though they have already replaced the pocket electronic dictionaries. These studies are also…

Relationships between Reading Comprehension and Its Components in Young Chinese-as-a-Second-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Yu Ka

2017-01-01

Based on the Simple View of Reading model, this study examines the relationships among Chinese reading comprehension and its two componential processes, Chinese character reading and listening comprehension, in young learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) using a longitudinal design. Using relevant measures, a sample of 142 senior primary…

ClimatePad: Enabling public exploration of climate data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, J. E.; Chapman, W. L.

2012-12-01

Informal learners interested in climate issues can find a wealth of information in the print and online media related to climate and climate change. Throughout these resources, the equal use of generic terms like 'global warming' and 'climate change' suggest a level of nuance in the science that is not easy to convey in this conventional media. Perhaps more than any other discipline, climate literacy has the most potential to be enhanced via the process of cognitive construction and reconstruction, rather than simple transmission of knowledge. Constructionism suggests that meaningful learning happens most effectively if the learner is actively engaged in constructing a product in the real world rather than absorbing information passively. Recent technological innovations have introduced mobile computing devices with sufficient power to do serious data analysis. The potential of these devices to augment climate literacy by turning citizens into scientists has yet to be exploited. We introduce ClimatePad, an iPad application that permits students and public to actively browse climate datasets, construct trends, plot time series, create composite differences and view animations of real-world climate data. Interactions with the ClimatePad permits varying the starting and ending dates of trends and differences. Climate analysis maps and animations can be customized with different color palettes, enticing the user to delve into and absorb the subtleties of the regional and temporal variations of the recent climate record. Finally, user-generated climate visualizations created with ClimatePad can be emailed to friends and shared via Facebook, entraining even more active learners.

An Asymmetrical Network Model of the Japanese EFL Learner's Mental Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aotani, Noriko; Sugino, Naoki; Fraser, Simon; Koga, Yuya; Shojima, Kojiro

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to construct a model of a simple lexical network showing the strength and asymmetry of the connections between vocabulary items in the L2 mental lexicon of Japanese learners. The study focuses on eight nouns and investigates how they are networked, and whether the existing network structure formed by these nouns would be…

The Role of Radical Awareness in Chinese-As-A-Second-Language Learners' Chinese Character Reading Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Yu Ka

2017-01-01

In this paper, the role of radical awareness in Chinese character reading development among young Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) learners is evaluated in terms of a structural property of the writing system: the distribution of elementary, one-radical (i.e. one-element) simple characters as against majority, multi-radical compound characters.…

How to Set up Oral Homework: A Case of Limited Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mendez, Elba

2010-01-01

Homework usually consists of the learners' written account of how they interpreted a task set by the teacher, and is generally defined as out-of-class assignments that are handed in for the instructor to grade. Learners may work individually or with partners to answer simple or challenging linguistic exercises, sketch out a mind map, or develop a…

Providing Deep Learning through Active Engagement of Adult Learners in Blended Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonough, Darlene

2014-01-01

Malcolm Knowles (2011) indicates that adult learners are most likely to be actively engaged in learning when they are given some choice and control over the learning process. When the curriculum relates to the adult learner's interests, is individualized, and authentic; the adult learner becomes actively engaged in the process by making a…

The Effectiveness of Written Corrective Feedback and the Impact Lao Learners' Beliefs Have on Uptake

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rummel, Stephanie; Bitchener, John

2015-01-01

This article presents the results of a study examining the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF) on the simple past tense and the impact beliefs may have on students' uptake of the feedback they receive. A seven-week study was carried out with 42 advanced EFL learners in Vientiane, Laos. Students' beliefs about written CF were first…

English Word-Level Decoding and Oral Language Factors as Predictors of Third and Fifth Grade English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landon, Laura L.

2017-01-01

This study examines the application of the Simple View of Reading (SVR), a reading comprehension theory focusing on word recognition and linguistic comprehension, to English Language Learners' (ELLs') English reading development. This study examines the concurrent and predictive validity of two components of the SVR, oral language and word-level…

Using Blended Learning to Facilitate the Mathematical thought Processes of Primary School Learners in a Computer Laboratory: A Case Study in Calculating Simple Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naidoo, N.; Naidoo, R.

2007-01-01

Primary school learners' first encounters with mathematics in a traditional learning environment often create lifelong "math phobia."(Papert 1980) The situation in a country emerging from an oppressive education system designed to educationally disempower the majority of the population is much worse. The typical scenario in a previously…

Analogical-mapping-based comparison tasks as a scaffold for argumentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emig, Brandon R.

Given the centrality of the argumentation process to science and consequent importance to science education, inviting science students to engage in argumentation and scaffolding that argumentation in order that it lead to learning and not frustration is important. The present research invites small groups of science content learners (54 preservice elementary teachers at a large research university) to use analogical-mapping-based comparison tasks in service of argumentation to determine which of two possible analogues, in this case simple machines, is most closely related to a third. These activities and associated instruction scaffolded student small-groups' argumentation in four ways: (1) supporting new analogical correspondences on the heels of prior correspondences; (2) discerning definitions and descriptions for simple machine elements; (3) identifying and dealing with ambiguity in potential correspondences; and (4) making reflections on prior analogical correspondences in service of their final arguments. Analogical-mapping-based comparison activities scaffolded student small groups both in their argumentation and in content learning about simple machines. Implications, limitations, and directions for future related research are also discussed.

Learning Activity Predictors from Sensor Data: Algorithms, Evaluation, and Applications.

PubMed

Minor, Bryan; Doppa, Janardhan Rao; Cook, Diane J

2017-12-01

Recent progress in Internet of Things (IoT) platforms has allowed us to collect large amounts of sensing data. However, there are significant challenges in converting this large-scale sensing data into decisions for real-world applications. Motivated by applications like health monitoring and intervention and home automation we consider a novel problem called Activity Prediction , where the goal is to predict future activity occurrence times from sensor data. In this paper, we make three main contributions. First, we formulate and solve the activity prediction problem in the framework of imitation learning and reduce it to a simple regression learning problem. This approach allows us to leverage powerful regression learners that can reason about the relational structure of the problem with negligible computational overhead. Second, we present several metrics to evaluate activity predictors in the context of real-world applications. Third, we evaluate our approach using real sensor data collected from 24 smart home testbeds. We also embed the learned predictor into a mobile-device-based activity prompter and evaluate the app for 9 participants living in smart homes. Our results indicate that our activity predictor performs better than the baseline methods, and offers a simple approach for predicting activities from sensor data.

Language Learning Activities of Distance EFL Learners in the Turkish Open Education System as the Indicator of Their Learner Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altunay, Dilek

2013-01-01

This study investigates the noncompulsory language learning activities performed by a group of distance EFL learners in the Turkish Open Education System. Performance of these activities has been considered as an indicator of their learner autonomy. The data were collected through an online questionnaire and interviews. The study shows that in…

Learners' Perceptions of Instructional Design Practice in a Situated Learning Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolf, Nicholas; Quinn, James

2009-01-01

This case study investigated learners' perceptions of value from participating in a learning activity designed to model professional instructional design practice. Learners developed instructional design products for a corporate client in the context of a classroom-based course. The findings indicate that learners perceived different kinds of…

A New Concept Map Model for E-Learning Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dattolo, Antonina; Luccio, Flaminia L.

Web-based education enables learners and teachers to access a wide quantity of continuously updated educational sources. In order to support the learning process, a system has to provide some fundamental features, such as simple mechanisms for the identification of the collection of “interesting” documents, adequate structures for storing, organizing and visualizing these documents, and appropriate mechanisms for creating personalized adaptive paths and views for learners.

The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation.

PubMed

Wetzels, Sandra A J; Kester, Liesbeth; van Merriënboer, Jeroen J G; Broers, Nick J

2011-06-01

Prior knowledge activation facilitates learning. Note taking during prior knowledge activation (i.e., note taking directed at retrieving information from memory) might facilitate the activation process by enabling learners to build an external representation of their prior knowledge. However, taking notes might be less effective in supporting prior knowledge activation if available prior knowledge is limited. This study investigates the effects of the retrieval-directed function of note taking depending on learners' level of prior knowledge. It is hypothesized that the effectiveness of note taking is influenced by the amount of prior knowledge learners already possess. Sixty-one high school students participated in this study. A prior knowledge test was used to ascertain differences in level of prior knowledge and assign participants to a low or a high prior knowledge group. A 2×2 factorial design was used to investigate the effects of note taking during prior knowledge activation (yes, no) depending on learners' level of prior knowledge (low, high) on mental effort, performance, and mental efficiency. Note taking during prior knowledge activation lowered mental effort and increased mental efficiency for high prior knowledge learners. For low prior knowledge learners, note taking had the opposite effect on mental effort and mental efficiency. The effects of the retrieval-directed function of note taking are influenced by learners' level of prior knowledge. Learners with high prior knowledge benefit from taking notes while activating prior knowledge, whereas note taking has no beneficial effects for learners with limited prior knowledge. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Learner-Content-Interface as an Approach for Self-Reliant and Student-Centered Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicolay, Robin; Schwennigcke, Bastian; Sahl, Sarah; Martens, Alke

2015-01-01

Conceptualization and implementation of computer supported teaching and training is currently not tailored to the paradigm of learner centration. Many technical solutions lack transparency and consistency regarding the supported learner activities. An insight into learners activities correlated to learning tasks is needed. In this paper we outline…

Investigation of Super Learner Methodology on HIV-1 Small Sample: Application on Jaguar Trial Data.

PubMed

Houssaïni, Allal; Assoumou, Lambert; Marcelin, Anne Geneviève; Molina, Jean Michel; Calvez, Vincent; Flandre, Philippe

2012-01-01

Background. Many statistical models have been tested to predict phenotypic or virological response from genotypic data. A statistical framework called Super Learner has been introduced either to compare different methods/learners (discrete Super Learner) or to combine them in a Super Learner prediction method. Methods. The Jaguar trial is used to apply the Super Learner framework. The Jaguar study is an "add-on" trial comparing the efficacy of adding didanosine to an on-going failing regimen. Our aim was also to investigate the impact on the use of different cross-validation strategies and different loss functions. Four different repartitions between training set and validations set were tested through two loss functions. Six statistical methods were compared. We assess performance by evaluating R(2) values and accuracy by calculating the rates of patients being correctly classified. Results. Our results indicated that the more recent Super Learner methodology of building a new predictor based on a weighted combination of different methods/learners provided good performance. A simple linear model provided similar results to those of this new predictor. Slight discrepancy arises between the two loss functions investigated, and slight difference arises also between results based on cross-validated risks and results from full dataset. The Super Learner methodology and linear model provided around 80% of patients correctly classified. The difference between the lower and higher rates is around 10 percent. The number of mutations retained in different learners also varys from one to 41. Conclusions. The more recent Super Learner methodology combining the prediction of many learners provided good performance on our small dataset.

Autonomous Learner Model Resource Book

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Betts, George T.; Carey, Robin J.; Kapushion, Blanche M.

2016-01-01

"Autonomous Learner Model Resource Book" includes activities and strategies to support the development of autonomous learners. More than 40 activities are included, all geared to the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical development of students. Teachers may use these activities and strategies with the entire class, small groups, or…

Learners' Interpersonal Beliefs and Generated Feedback in an Online Role-Playing Peer-Feedback Activity: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ching, Yu-Hui; Hsu, Yu-Chang

2016-01-01

Peer feedback affords interaction and critical thinking opportunities for learners in online courses. However, various factors prevent learners from taking advantage of these promising benefits. This study explored learners' perceptions of the interpersonal factors in a role-playing peer-feedback activity, and examined the types of peer feedback…

Promoting Physics Among Female Learners in the Western Cape Through Active Engagement (abstract)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arendse, Gillian J.

2009-04-01

In 2006 the author organized a one-day intervention aimed at promoting physics among female learners at the University of Stellenbosch. The activities included an interactive lecture demonstration promoting active engagement, a hands-on session, and short presentations by female physicists addressing issues such as balancing family and career, breaking the stereotypes, and launching a successful career in physics. Each learner was expected to evaluate the program. In 2007 the author joined forces with Hip2B2 (Shuttleworth Foundation) to host a competition among grade-10 learners with the theme, ``promoting creativity through interactivity.'' The author was tasked by the Hip2B2-team to assist with a program for female learners planned for August 2008, coinciding with our national celebration of Women's Day. The event targeted 160 learners and took place in Durban, East London, Cape Town, and Johannesburg. The author shares some of the learners' experiences and personal triumphs.

Channeling Children's Energy through Vocabulary Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schindler, Andrea

2006-01-01

In this article, the author shares vocabulary development activities for young learners. These activities channel students' energy and make learning more effective and fun. The author stresses the importance of giving young learners a good language-learning experience, and the challenges of teaching young learners who are not literate in their L1.…

The Use of Conjunctions in Cognitively Simple versus Complex Oral L2 Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michel, Marije C.

2013-01-01

The present study explores the use of conjunctions in simple versus complex argumentative tasks performed by second language (L2) learners as a specific measure for the amount of reasoning involved in task performance. The Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2005) states that an increase in cognitive task complexity promotes improvements in L2…

This Book Is Not about Drama: It's about New Ways to Inspire Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrs, Myra; Barton, Bob; Booth, David

2012-01-01

"This Book Is Not About Drama" explores issues around storytelling, silent speech, writing and imagination and shows teachers how to use role play and discussion to build language experiences that are meaningful for learners. This authoritative resource is full of simple strategies that begin with the simple and evolve in to more complex…

Processing of action- but not stimulus-related prediction errors differs between active and observational feedback learning.

PubMed

Kobza, Stefan; Bellebaum, Christian

2015-01-01

Learning of stimulus-response-outcome associations is driven by outcome prediction errors (PEs). Previous studies have shown larger PE-dependent activity in the striatum for learning from own as compared to observed actions and the following outcomes despite comparable learning rates. We hypothesised that this finding relates primarily to a stronger integration of action and outcome information in active learners. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated brain activations related to action-dependent PEs, reflecting the deviation between action values and obtained outcomes, and action-independent PEs, reflecting the deviation between subjective values of response-preceding cues and obtained outcomes. To this end, 16 active and 15 observational learners engaged in a probabilistic learning card-guessing paradigm. On each trial, active learners saw one out of five cues and pressed either a left or right response button to receive feedback (monetary win or loss). Each observational learner observed exactly those cues, responses and outcomes of one active learner. Learning performance was assessed in active test trials without feedback and did not differ between groups. For both types of PEs, activations were found in the globus pallidus, putamen, cerebellum, and insula in active learners. However, only for action-dependent PEs, activations in these structures and the anterior cingulate were increased in active relative to observational learners. Thus, PE-related activity in the reward system is not generally enhanced in active relative to observational learning but only for action-dependent PEs. For the cerebellum, additional activations were found across groups for cue-related uncertainty, thereby emphasising the cerebellum's role in stimulus-outcome learning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acquisition of Mathematical Language: Suggestions and Activities for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cirillo, Michelle; Bruna, Katherine Richardson; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth

2010-01-01

In this article, we describe aspects of mathematical language that could be problematic to English-language learners, provide recommendations for teaching English-language learners, and suggest activities intended to foster language development in mathematics. (Contains 1 figure.)

Exploratory qualitative case study of lab-type activity interactions in an online graduate geoscience course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciavarella, Veronica C.

This exploratory qualitative case study investigated the use of lab-type activities in an online graduate geoscience course. Constructivism is the theoretical framework used to explain how learning happens in lab-type activity, and provided the goals to which successful learning in lab-type activity is compared. This study focused on the learner-instructor, learner-learner, and perceptions of the learner-content interactions that occurred related to lab-type activities in an online graduate geoscience course to determine: if the instructor appeared as a facilitator of the learning process in the interactions over the activities; if students engaged in discussion and reflection about the activities; if students perceived the activities as meaningful and authentic; and if students perceived using higher order thinking and prior knowledge while interacting with the content. Ten graduate students from three offerings of the course participated in this study, as well as the instructor and designer of the course content and lab-type activities. Data were collected through interviews, and observation and analysis of the lab-type activities, instructor feedback to students in their graded activities, and discussion that occurred between the instructor and students and among students about the lab-type activities in discussion forums. The nature of the instructor's interactions in discussion forums, in feedback to students on graded activities, and reported by students' in interviews supported that, in the learner-instructor interactions, the instructor of this course was a facilitator who guided and scaffolded the students towards successfully completing the activities. Students engaged in discussion and reflected on the activities, but most learner-learner interactions in discussion forums about the lab-type activities appeared to occur for the purpose of comparison of results, support, and empathy. Students' success at higher order thinking type questions in lab-type activities and their perceptions reported in interviews of using higher order thinking in their interactions with the lab-type activities supported that the learner-content interactions involved higher order thinking. Students also reported finding the activities realistic, meaningful and authentic, and this increased their interest with the activities, and the activities aided their understanding of the content.

Doing Your Part To Help Your Child Become SMART (Successful, Motivated, Autonomous, Responsible, Thoughtful): Six Workshops on Parenting SMART Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sattes, Beth; Walsh, Jackie; Hickman, Mickey

A SMART Learner is a lifelong learner who can adapt to rapid change and who possesses characteristics associated with success in and out of school. These workshop materials to help parents help their children become SMART learners provide: information from current research and best practice; learning activities that will actively engage parents in…

Learning from instructional explanations: effects of prompts based on the active-constructive-interactive framework.

PubMed

Roelle, Julian; Müller, Claudia; Roelle, Detlev; Berthold, Kirsten

2015-01-01

Although instructional explanations are commonly provided when learners are introduced to new content, they often fail because they are not integrated into effective learning activities. The recently introduced active-constructive-interactive framework posits an effectiveness hierarchy in which interactive learning activities are at the top; these are then followed by constructive and active learning activities, respectively. Against this background, we combined instructional explanations with different types of prompts that were designed to elicit these learning activities and tested the central predictions of the active-constructive-interactive framework. In Experiment 1, N = 83 students were randomly assigned to one of four combinations of instructional explanations and prompts. To test the active < constructive learning hypothesis, the learners received either (1) complete explanations and engaging prompts designed to elicit active activities or (2) explanations that were reduced by inferences and inference prompts designed to engage learners in constructing the withheld information. Furthermore, in order to explore how interactive learning activities can be elicited, we gave the learners who had difficulties in constructing the prompted inferences adapted remedial explanations with either (3) unspecific engaging prompts or (4) revision prompts. In support of the active < constructive learning hypothesis, we found that the learners who received reduced explanations and inference prompts outperformed the learners who received complete explanations and engaging prompts. Moreover, revision prompts were more effective in eliciting interactive learning activities than engaging prompts. In Experiment 2, N = 40 students were randomly assigned to either (1) a reduced explanations and inference prompts or (2) a reduced explanations and inference prompts plus adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts condition. In support of the constructive < interactive learning hypothesis, the learners who received adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts as add-ons to reduced explanations and inference prompts acquired more conceptual knowledge.

Learning from Instructional Explanations: Effects of Prompts Based on the Active-Constructive-Interactive Framework

PubMed Central

Roelle, Julian; Müller, Claudia; Roelle, Detlev; Berthold, Kirsten

2015-01-01

Although instructional explanations are commonly provided when learners are introduced to new content, they often fail because they are not integrated into effective learning activities. The recently introduced active-constructive-interactive framework posits an effectiveness hierarchy in which interactive learning activities are at the top; these are then followed by constructive and active learning activities, respectively. Against this background, we combined instructional explanations with different types of prompts that were designed to elicit these learning activities and tested the central predictions of the active-constructive-interactive framework. In Experiment 1, N = 83 students were randomly assigned to one of four combinations of instructional explanations and prompts. To test the active < constructive learning hypothesis, the learners received either (1) complete explanations and engaging prompts designed to elicit active activities or (2) explanations that were reduced by inferences and inference prompts designed to engage learners in constructing the withheld information. Furthermore, in order to explore how interactive learning activities can be elicited, we gave the learners who had difficulties in constructing the prompted inferences adapted remedial explanations with either (3) unspecific engaging prompts or (4) revision prompts. In support of the active < constructive learning hypothesis, we found that the learners who received reduced explanations and inference prompts outperformed the learners who received complete explanations and engaging prompts. Moreover, revision prompts were more effective in eliciting interactive learning activities than engaging prompts. In Experiment 2, N = 40 students were randomly assigned to either (1) a reduced explanations and inference prompts or (2) a reduced explanations and inference prompts plus adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts condition. In support of the constructive < interactive learning hypothesis, the learners who received adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts as add-ons to reduced explanations and inference prompts acquired more conceptual knowledge. PMID:25853629

Highly scalable and robust rule learner: performance evaluation and comparison.

PubMed

Kurgan, Lukasz A; Cios, Krzysztof J; Dick, Scott

2006-02-01

Business intelligence and bioinformatics applications increasingly require the mining of datasets consisting of millions of data points, or crafting real-time enterprise-level decision support systems for large corporations and drug companies. In all cases, there needs to be an underlying data mining system, and this mining system must be highly scalable. To this end, we describe a new rule learner called DataSqueezer. The learner belongs to the family of inductive supervised rule extraction algorithms. DataSqueezer is a simple, greedy, rule builder that generates a set of production rules from labeled input data. In spite of its relative simplicity, DataSqueezer is a very effective learner. The rules generated by the algorithm are compact, comprehensible, and have accuracy comparable to rules generated by other state-of-the-art rule extraction algorithms. The main advantages of DataSqueezer are very high efficiency, and missing data resistance. DataSqueezer exhibits log-linear asymptotic complexity with the number of training examples, and it is faster than other state-of-the-art rule learners. The learner is also robust to large quantities of missing data, as verified by extensive experimental comparison with the other learners. DataSqueezer is thus well suited to modern data mining and business intelligence tasks, which commonly involve huge datasets with a large fraction of missing data.

The reverse classroom: lectures on your own and homework with faculty.

PubMed

Sherbino, Jonathan; Chan, Teresa; Schiff, Karen

2013-05-01

With the arrival of a technologically proficient generation of learners (often described with the moniker "digital natives") into Canadian medical schools and residency programs, there is an increasing trend toward harnessing technology to enhance education and increase teaching efficiency. We present an instructional method that allows medical educators to "reverse" the traditional classroom paradigm. Imagine that prior to an academic half-day session, learners watch an e-lecture on their own time; then during class, they do "homework" with tailored consultations from a content expert. The reverse classroom uses simple, readily accessible technology to allow faculty members to engage learners in high-order learning such as information analysis and synthesis. With this instructional method, the inefficient, repetitious delivery of recurring core lectures is no longer required. The reverse classroom is an effective instructional method. Using this technique, learners engage in high-order learning and interaction with teachers, and teachers are able to optimally share their expertise.

AdjScales: Visualizing Differences between Adjectives for Language Learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheinman, Vera; Tokunaga, Takenobu

In this study we introduce AdjScales, a method for scaling similar adjectives by their strength. It combines existing Web-based computational linguistic techniques in order to automatically differentiate between similar adjectives that describe the same property by strength. Though this kind of information is rarely present in most of the lexical resources and dictionaries, it may be useful for language learners that try to distinguish between similar words. Additionally, learners might gain from a simple visualization of these differences using unidimensional scales. The method is evaluated by comparison with annotation on a subset of adjectives from WordNet by four native English speakers. It is also compared against two non-native speakers of English. The collected annotation is an interesting resource in its own right. This work is a first step toward automatic differentiation of meaning between similar words for language learners. AdjScales can be useful for lexical resource enhancement.

Constructing Interpretative Views of Learners' Interaction Behavior in an Open Learner Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papanikolaou, Kyparisia A.

2015-01-01

In this paper, we discuss how externalizing learners' interaction behavior may support learners' explorations in an adaptive educational hypermedia environment that provides activity-oriented content. In particular, we propose a model for producing interpretative views of learners' interaction behavior and we further apply this model to…

Stoogiometry: A Cognitive Approach to Teaching Stoichiometry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieger, Carla R.

1997-01-01

Describes the use of Moe's Mall, a locational device designed to be used by learners, as a simple algorithm for solving mole-based exercises efficiently and accurately using dimensional analysis. (DDR)

We are what we do: Examining learner-generated content in the anatomy laboratory through the lens of activity theory.

PubMed

Doubleday, Alison F; Wille, Sarah J

2014-01-01

Video and photography are often used for delivering content within the anatomical sciences. However, instructors typically produce these resources to provide instructional or procedural information. Although the benefits of learner-generated content have been explored within educational research, virtually no studies have investigated the use of learner-generated video and photograph content within anatomy dissection laboratories. This study outlines an activity involving learner-generated video diaries and learner-generated photograph assignments produced during anatomy laboratory sessions. The learner-generated photographs and videos provided instructors with a means of formative assessment and allowed instructors to identify evidence of collaborative behavior in the laboratory. Student questionnaires (n = 21) and interviews (n = 5), as well as in-class observations, were conducted to examine student perspectives on the laboratory activities. The quantitative and qualitative data were examined using the framework of activity theory to identify contradictions between student expectations of, and engagement with, the activity and the actual experiences of the students. Results indicate that learner-generated photograph and video content can act as a rich source of data on student learning processes and can be used for formative assessment, for observing collaborative behavior, and as a starting point for class discussions. This study stresses the idea that technology choice for activities must align with instructional goals. This research also highlights the utility of activity theory as a framework for assessing classroom and laboratory activities, demonstrating that this approach can guide the development of laboratory activities. © 2014 American Association of Anatomists.

Upper Secondary Students' Understanding of the Basic Physical Interactions in Analogous Atomic and Solar Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Keith S.

2013-01-01

Comparing the atom to a "tiny solar system" is a common teaching analogy, and the extent to which learners saw the systems as analogous was investigated. English upper secondary students were asked parallel questions about the physical interactions between the components of a simple atomic system and a simple solar system to investigate…

Examining the Simple View of Reading Model for United States High School Spanish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard; Patton, Jon

2016-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) model, which posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension that make independent contributions to reading skill, has been found to explain the acquisition of first language (L1) reading and second language (L2) reading in young English language learners (ELLs).…

Working Memory in L2 Reading: Does Capacity Predict Performance?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrington, Michael; Sawyer, Mark

A study was conducted at the International University of Japan to see if second language (L2) working capacity correlates with L2 reading ability in advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The study consisted of a set of memory tests (Simple Digit, Simple Word, and Complex Span Test) and a set of measures of reading skills given to…

Examining the Simple View of Reading among Subgroups of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grimm, Ryan Ponce

2015-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) has a longstanding history as a model of reading comprehension, but it has mostly been applied to native English speakers. The SVR posits reading comprehension is a function of the interaction between word-level reading skills and oral language skills. It has been…

Influence of learner knowledge and case complexity on handover accuracy and cognitive load: results from a simulation study.

PubMed

Young, John Q; van Dijk, Savannah M; O'Sullivan, Patricia S; Custers, Eugene J; Irby, David M; Ten Cate, Olle

2016-09-01

The handover represents a high-risk event in which errors are common and lead to patient harm. A better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of handover errors is essential to improving handover education and practice. This paper reports on an experiment conducted to study the effects of learner knowledge, case complexity (i.e. cases with or without a clear diagnosis) and their interaction on handover accuracy and cognitive load. Participants were 52 Dutch medical students in Years 2 and 6. The experiment employed a repeated-measures design with two explanatory variables: case complexity (simple or complex) as the within-subject variable, and learner knowledge (as indicated by illness script maturity) as the between-subject covariate. The dependent variables were handover accuracy and cognitive load. Each participant performed a total of four simulated handovers involving two simple cases and two complex cases. Higher illness script maturity predicted increased handover accuracy (p < 0.001) and lower cognitive load (p = 0.007). Case complexity did not independently affect either outcome. For handover accuracy, there was no interaction between case complexity and illness script maturity. For cognitive load, there was an interaction effect between illness script maturity and case complexity, indicating that more mature illness scripts reduced cognitive load less in complex cases than in simple cases. Students with more mature illness scripts performed more accurate handovers and experienced lower cognitive load. For cognitive load, these effects were more pronounced in simple than complex cases. If replicated, these findings suggest that handover curricula and protocols should provide support that varies according to the knowledge of the trainee. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Interactions between and among Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners during Collaborative Writing Activities: How Learners Attend to Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walls, Laura

2013-01-01

This study investigates the dynamics in the Spanish classroom between heritage language learner (HLL) dyads, second language learner (L2L) dyads, and mixed HLL-L2L dyads. Specifically, it examines oral, written and embodied discourse that informs our understanding of how learners attend to language. Analysis for this dissertation examined…

Investigative Research: How It Changes Learner Status.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenny, Brian

1993-01-01

What matters about an educational activity is how learners respond to it. This article examines a program concerned with the learners' needs, through the expression of learners' own meanings, and advances the concept of investigative research as a suitable vehicle for more autonomous learning, through a change in learner status. (26 references)…

Computing of Learner's Personality Traits Based on Digital Annotations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omheni, Nizar; Kalboussi, Anis; Mazhoud, Omar; Kacem, Ahmed Hadj

2017-01-01

Researchers in education are interested in modeling of learner's profile and adapt their learning experiences accordingly. When learners read and interact with their reading materials, they do unconscious practices like annotations which may be, a key feature of their personalities. Annotation activity requires readers to be active, to think…

Improving the EFL Learners' Speaking Ability through Interactive Storytelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marzuki; Prayogo, Johannes Ananto; Wahyudi, Arwijati

2016-01-01

This present research was aimed to improve the EFL learners' speaking ability and their classroom activities through the implementation of Interactive Storytelling Strategy. Therefore, this study was directed to explore the beneficial of Interactive Storytelling that closely related to the EFL learners' everyday activities at their home and…

Are One-to-One Computers Necessary? An Analysis of Collaborative Web Exploration Activities Supported by Shared Displays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Chia-Jung; Liu, Chen-Chung; Shen, Yan-Jhih

2012-01-01

Collaborative web exploration, in which learners work together to explore the World Wide Web, has become a key learning activity in education contexts. Learners can use a shared computer with a shared display to explore the web together. However, such a shared-computer approach may limit active participation among learners. To address this issue,…

The Child as an Active Learner: Views, Practices, and Barriers in Chinese Early Childhood Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Fengling

2006-01-01

The Chinese view of the child is in the process of changing from the dependent child of traditional Chinese society to the child as an active learner in contemporary China. The view of the child as an active learner forces early childhood practitioners to rethink the features of the child's learning and development, individuality, and needs and…

Between the Social and the Selfish: Learner Autonomy in Online Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Tim

2013-01-01

This paper explores what it means to be an autonomous learner in an online social context. Using distinctions originally drawn by Jürgen Habermas, it argues that classic accounts of learner autonomy as teleological action are inadequate to explain learner activity in group settings. It points out that learners in such settings display attitudes…

Who Benefits from Cooperative Learning with Movement Activity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoval, Ella; Shulruf, Boaz

2011-01-01

The goal of this study is to identify learners who are most likely to benefit from a small group cooperative learning strategy, which includes tasks involving movement activities. The study comprised 158 learners from five second and third grade classes learning about angles. The research tools included structured observation of each learner and…

How Do Novice and Expert Learners Represent, Understand, and Discuss Geologic Time?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Layow, Erica Amanda

This dissertation examined the representations novice and expert learners constructed for the geologic timescale. Learners engaged in a three-part activity. The purpose was to compare novice learners' representations to those of expert learners. This provided insight into the similarities and differences between their strategies for event ordering, assigning values and scale to the geologic timescale model, as well as their language and practices to complete the model. With a qualitative approach to data analysis informed by an expert-novice theoretical framework grounded in phenomenography, learner responses comprised the data analyzed. These data highlighted learners' metacognitive thoughts that might not otherwise be shared through lectures or laboratory activities. Learners' responses were analyzed using a discourse framework that positioned learners as knowers. Novice and expert learners both excelled at ordering and discussing events before the Phanerozoic, but were challenged with events during the Phanerozoic. Novice learners had difficulty assigning values to events and establishing a scale for their models. Expert learners expressed difficulty with determining a scale because of the size of the model, yet eventually used anchor points and unitized the model to establish a scale. Despite challenges constructing their models, novice learners spoke confidently using claims and few hedging phrases indicating their confidence in statements made. Experts used more hedges than novices, however the hedging comments were made about more complex conceptions. Using both phenomenographic and discourse analysis approaches for analysis foregrounded learners' discussions of how they perceived geologic time and their ways of knowing and doing. This research is intended to enhance the geoscience community's understanding of the ways novice and expert learners think and discuss conceptions of geologic time, including the events and values of time, and the strategies used to determine accuracy of scale. This knowledge will provide a base from which to support geoscience curriculum development at the university level, specifically to design activities that will not only engage and express learners' metacognitive scientific practices, but to encourage their construction of scientific identities and membership in the geoscience community.

Simple Activities for Powerful Impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LaConte, K.; Shupla, C. B.; Dusenbery, P.; Harold, J. B.; Holland, A.

2016-12-01

STEM education is having a transformational impact on libraries across the country. The STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) provides free Science-Technology Activities & Resources that are helping libraries to engage their communities in STEM learning experiences. Hear the results of a national 2015 survey of library and STEM professionals and learn what STEM programming is currently in place in public libraries and how libraries approach and implement STEM programs. Experience hands-on space science activities that are being used in library programs with multiple age groups. Through these hands-on activities, learners explore the nature of science and employ science and engineering practices, including developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, and engaging in argument from evidence (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Learn how STAR_Net can help you print (free!) mini-exhibits and educator guides. Join STAR_Net's online community and access STEM resources and webinars to work with libraries in your local community.

Supporting Learners' Experiment Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Riesen, Siswa; Gijlers, Hannie; Anjewierden, Anjo; de Jong, Ton

2018-01-01

Inquiry learning is an educational approach in which learners actively construct knowledge and in which performing investigations and conducting experiments is central. To support learners in designing informative experiments we created a scaffold, the Experiment Design Tool (EDT), that provided learners with a step-by-step structure to select…

Transformational Processes and Learner Outcomes for Online Learning: An Activity Theory Case Study of Spanish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terantino, Joseph M.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the actions of online language learners from an activity theoretical perspective. It also attempted to explain how the students' learning outcomes evolved from their online learning experiences. This explanation placed an emphasis on the learners' previous experiences, defining their activity…

Training Learners to Use Quizlet Vocabulary Activities on Mobile Phones in Vietnam with Facebook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Phuong

2016-01-01

Mobile phone ownership among university students in Vietnam has reached almost 100%, exceeding that of Internet-capable desktop computers. This has made them increasingly popular to allow learners to carry out learning activities outside of the classroom, but some studies have suggested that learners are not always willing to engage in activities…

Investigating Learner Attitudes toward E-Books as Learning Tools: Based on the Activity Theory Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liaw, Shu-Sheng; Huang, Hsiu-Mei

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the use of e-books as learning tools in terms of learner satisfaction, usefulness, behavioral intention, and learning effectiveness. Based on the activity theory approach, this research develops a research model to understand learner attitudes toward e-books in two physical sizes: 10? and 7?. Results suggest that screen…

The Development of Expert Learners in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahman, Saemah; Mahmud, Zuria; Yassin, Siti Fatimah Mohd; Amir, Ruslin; Ilias, Khadijah Wan

2010-01-01

The term "expert learner" refers to students who are actively engaged with the materials learned and take responsibility for their own learning. Literature reviews suggested the use of metacognitive approach to help develop students to become expert learners. Research on development of expert learners can be traced from movements that…

The Learners' Mental Models of Television in Mathematics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sumalee, Chaijaroen

1999-01-01

Examines the learners' mental models of television in actual media classroom activity by which knowledge was constructed. Findings revealed how media capabilities and the instructional designs that employ them interact with the learners and the task characteristics to influence the formation of the learners' mental models and their learning…

The Effect of Reading on Second-Language Learners' Production in Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collentine, Karina

2016-01-01

Tasks provide engaging ways to involve learners in meaningful, real-world activities with the foreign language (FL). Yet selecting classroom tasks suitable to learners' linguistic readiness is challenging, and task-based research is exploring the relationship between learners' overall abilities (e.g., reading, grammatical) and the complexity and…

Comparing Learner Community Behavior in Multiple Presentations of a Massive Open Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Silvia Elena; Savage, Timothy

2015-01-01

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) can create large scale communities of learners who collaborate, interact and discuss learning materials and activities. MOOCs are often delivered multiple times with similar content to different cohorts of learners. However, research into the differences of learner communication, behavior and expectation between…

Comparing Learner Community Behavior in Multiple Presentations of a Massive Open Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Silvia Elena; Savage, Timothy

2016-01-01

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) can create large scale communities of learners who collaborate, interact and discuss learning materials and activities. MOOCs are often delivered multiple times with similar content to different cohorts of learners. However, research into the differences of learner communication, behavior and expectation between…

Motivation Classification and Grade Prediction for MOOCs Learners

PubMed Central

Xu, Bin; Yang, Dan

2016-01-01

While MOOCs offer educational data on a new scale, many educators find great potential of the big data including detailed activity records of every learner. A learner's behavior such as if a learner will drop out from the course can be predicted. How to provide an effective, economical, and scalable method to detect cheating on tests such as surrogate exam-taker is a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a grade predicting method that uses student activity features to predict whether a learner may get a certification if he/she takes a test. The method consists of two-step classifications: motivation classification (MC) and grade classification (GC). The MC divides all learners into three groups including certification earning, video watching, and course sampling. The GC then predicts a certification earning learner may or may not obtain a certification. Our experiment shows that the proposed method can fit the classification model at a fine scale and it is possible to find a surrogate exam-taker. PMID:26884747

Motivation Classification and Grade Prediction for MOOCs Learners.

PubMed

Xu, Bin; Yang, Dan

2016-01-01

While MOOCs offer educational data on a new scale, many educators find great potential of the big data including detailed activity records of every learner. A learner's behavior such as if a learner will drop out from the course can be predicted. How to provide an effective, economical, and scalable method to detect cheating on tests such as surrogate exam-taker is a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a grade predicting method that uses student activity features to predict whether a learner may get a certification if he/she takes a test. The method consists of two-step classifications: motivation classification (MC) and grade classification (GC). The MC divides all learners into three groups including certification earning, video watching, and course sampling. The GC then predicts a certification earning learner may or may not obtain a certification. Our experiment shows that the proposed method can fit the classification model at a fine scale and it is possible to find a surrogate exam-taker.

Characterization of the Optical Properties of Turbid Media by Supervised Learning of Scattering Patterns.

PubMed

Hassaninia, Iman; Bostanabad, Ramin; Chen, Wei; Mohseni, Hooman

2017-11-10

Fabricated tissue phantoms are instrumental in optical in-vitro investigations concerning cancer diagnosis, therapeutic applications, and drug efficacy tests. We present a simple non-invasive computational technique that, when coupled with experiments, has the potential for characterization of a wide range of biological tissues. The fundamental idea of our approach is to find a supervised learner that links the scattering pattern of a turbid sample to its thickness and scattering parameters. Once found, this supervised learner is employed in an inverse optimization problem for estimating the scattering parameters of a sample given its thickness and scattering pattern. Multi-response Gaussian processes are used for the supervised learning task and a simple setup is introduced to obtain the scattering pattern of a tissue sample. To increase the predictive power of the supervised learner, the scattering patterns are filtered, enriched by a regressor, and finally characterized with two parameters, namely, transmitted power and scaled Gaussian width. We computationally illustrate that our approach achieves errors of roughly 5% in predicting the scattering properties of many biological tissues. Our method has the potential to facilitate the characterization of tissues and fabrication of phantoms used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes over a wide range of optical spectrum.

Popular Culture, English Out-of-Class Activities, and Learner Autonomy among Highly Proficient Secondary Students in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Hoi Wing

2016-01-01

This paper reports on how and why proficient learners of English in Hong Kong participated in popular culture, out-of-class activities, with an emphasis on their development of learner autonomy. Autonomy in language learning is defined as an individual's ability and responsibility to take charge of his or her own learning [1]. Out-of-class…

Characterizing Engineering Learners' Preferences for Active and Passive Learning Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magana, Alejandra J.; Vieira, Camilo; Boutin, Mireille

2018-01-01

This paper studies electrical engineering learners' preferences for learning methods with various degrees of activity. Less active learning methods such as homework and peer reviews are investigated, as well as a newly introduced very active (constructive) learning method called "slectures," and some others. The results suggest that…

The neural coding of expected and unexpected monetary performance outcomes: dissociations between active and observational learning.

PubMed

Bellebaum, C; Jokisch, D; Gizewski, E R; Forsting, M; Daum, I

2012-02-01

Successful adaptation to the environment requires the learning of stimulus-response-outcome associations. Such associations can be learned actively by trial and error or by observing the behaviour and accompanying outcomes in other persons. The present study investigated similarities and differences in the neural mechanisms of active and observational learning from monetary feedback using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Two groups of 15 subjects each - active and observational learners - participated in the experiment. On every trial, active learners chose between two stimuli and received monetary feedback. Each observational learner observed the choices and outcomes of one active learner. Learning performance as assessed via active test trials without feedback was comparable between groups. Different activation patterns were observed for the processing of unexpected vs. expected monetary feedback in active and observational learners, particularly for positive outcomes. Activity for unexpected vs. expected reward was stronger in the right striatum in active learning, while activity in the hippocampus was bilaterally enhanced in observational and reduced in active learning. Modulation of activity by prediction error (PE) magnitude was observed in the right putamen in both types of learning, whereas PE related activations in the right anterior caudate nucleus and in the medial orbitofrontal cortex were stronger for active learning. The striatum and orbitofrontal cortex thus appear to link reward stimuli to own behavioural reactions and are less strongly involved when the behavioural outcome refers to another person's action. Alternative explanations such as differences in reward value between active and observational learning are also discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adult Learners' Week in Australia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, John

2002-01-01

Promotional materials and activities for Australia's Adult Learners Week, which are shaped by a variety of stakeholders , include media strategies and a website. Activities are evaluated using a market research company and website and telephone hotline statistics. (SK)

Supporting Reflective Activities in Information Seeking on the Web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Hitomi; Miwa, Kazuhisa

Recently, many opportunities have emerged to use the Internet in daily life and classrooms. However, with the growth of the World Wide Web (Web), it is becoming increasingly difficult to find target information on the Internet. In this study, we explore a method for developing the ability of users in information seeking on the Web and construct a search process feedback system supporting reflective activities of information seeking on the Web. Reflection is defined as a cognitive activity for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying one's thinking and process. In the field of learning science, many researchers have investigated reflective activities that facilitate learners' problem solving and deep understanding. The characteristics of this system are: (1) to show learners' search processes on the Web as described, based on a cognitive schema, and (2) to prompt learners to reflect on their search processes. We expect that users of this system can reflect on their search processes by receiving information on their own search processes provided by the system, and that these types of reflective activity helps them to deepen their understanding of information seeking activities. We have conducted an experiment to investigate the effects of our system. The experimental results confirmed that (1) the system actually facilitated the learners' reflective activities by providing process visualization and prompts, and (2) the learners who reflected on their search processes more actively understood their own search processes more deeply.

Designing across ages: Multi-agent-based models and learning electricity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sengupta, Pratim

Electricity is regarded as one of the most challenging topics for students at all levels -- middle school -- college (Cohen, Eylon, & Ganiel, 1983; Belcher & Olbert, 2003; Eylon & Ganiel, 1990; Steinberg et al., 1985). Several researchers have suggested that naive misconceptions about electricity stem from a deep incommensurability (Slotta & Chi, 2006; Chi, 2005) or incompatibility (Chi, Slotta & Leauw, 1994; Reiner, Slotta, Chi, & Resnick, 2000) between naive and expert knowledge structures. I first present an alternative theoretical framework that adopts an emergent levels-based perspective as proposed by Wilensky & Resnick (1999). From this perspective, macro-level phenomena such as electric current and resistance, as well as behavior of linear electric circuits, can be conceived of as emergent from simple, body-syntonic interactions between electrons and ions in a circuit. I argue that adopting such a perspective enables us to reconceive commonly noted misconceptions in electricity as behavioral evidences of "slippage between levels" -- i.e., these misconceptions appear when otherwise productive knowledge elements are sometimes inappropriately activated due to certain macro-level phenomenological cues only -- and, that the same knowledge elements when activated due to phenomenological cues at both micro- and macro-levels, can engender a deeper, expert-like understanding. I will then introduce NIELS (NetLogo Investigations In Electromagnetism, Sengupta & Wilensky, 2006, 2008, 2009), a low-threshold high-ceiling (LTHC) learning environment of multi-agent-based computational models that represent phenomena such as electric current and resistance, as well as the behavior of linear electric circuits, as emergent. I also present results from implementations of NIELS in 5th, 7th and 12th grade classrooms that show the following: (a) how leveraging certain "design elements" over others in NIELS models can create new phenomenological cues, which in turn can be appropriated for learners in different grades; (b) how learners' existing knowledge structures can be bootstrapped to generate deep understanding; (c) how these knowledge structures evolve as the learners progress through the implemented curriculum; (d) improvement of learners' understanding in the post-test compared to the pre-test; and (e) how NIELS students compare with a comparison group of 12th grade students who underwent traditional classroom instruction.

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Newman, Sharlene D

2017-02-01

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel language activation in M2L2 learners of sign language and to characterize the influence of spoken language and sign language neighborhood density on the activation of ASL signs. A priming paradigm was used in which the neighbors of the sign target were activated with a spoken English word and compared the activation of the targets in sparse and dense neighborhoods. Neighborhood density effects in auditory primed lexical decision task were then compared to previous reports of native deaf signers who were only processing sign language. Results indicated reversed neighborhood density effects in M2L2 learners relative to those in deaf signers such that there were inhibitory effects of handshape density and facilitatory effects of location density. Additionally, increased inhibition for signs in dense handshape neighborhoods was greater for high proficiency L2 learners. These findings support recent models of the hearing bimodal bilingual lexicon, which posit lateral links between spoken language and sign language lexical representations.

Is Free Recall Active: The Testing Effect through the ICAP Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruchok, Christiana; Mar, Christopher; Craig, Scotty D.

2017-01-01

Amidst evidence in favor of "active learning," online instruction widely implements passive design and tests learners' retrieval performance as opposed to learners' understanding. Literature reporting the testing effect promotes recall as a learning tool. The Interactive>Constructive>Active>Passive taxonomy would place quizzing…

People use the memory for past-test heuristic as an explicit cue for judgments of learning.

PubMed

Serra, Michael J; Ariel, Robert

2014-11-01

When people estimate their memory for to-be-learned material over multiple study-test trials, they tend to base their judgments of learning (JOLs) on their test performance for those materials on the previous trial. Their use of this information-known as the memory for past-test (MPT) heuristic-is believed to be responsible for improvements in the relative accuracy (resolution) of people's JOLs across learning trials. Although participants seem to use past-test information as a major basis for their JOLs, little is known about how learners translate this information into a judgment of learning. Toward this end, in two experiments, we examined whether participants factored past-test performance into their JOLs in either an explicit, theory-based way or an implicit way. To do so, we had one group of participants (learners) study paired associates, make JOLs, and take a test on two study-test trials. Other participants (observers) viewed learners' protocols and made JOLs for the learners. Presumably, observers could only use theory-based information to make JOLs for the learners, which allowed us to estimate the contribution of explicit and implicit information to learners' JOLs. Our analyses suggest that all participants factored simple past-test performance into their JOLs in an explicit, theory-based way but that this information made limited contributions to improvements in relative accuracy across trials. In contrast, learners also used other privileged, implicit information about their learning to inform their judgments (that observers had no access to) that allowed them to achieve further improvements in relative accuracy across trials.

Learners' Satisfaction Level with Online Student Portal as a Support System in an Open and Distance eLearning Environment (ODeL)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Secreto, Percia V.; Pamulaklakin, Rhodora L.

2015-01-01

Learner support in an open, distance and online learning is defined as "all activities and elements in education that respond to a known learner or group of learners, and which are designed to assist in the cognitive, affective, and systemic realms of the learning process" (Brindley, et. al, 2004). Teaching and tutoring, advising and…

Form-Focused Discovery Activities in English Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogeyik, Muhlise Cosgun

2011-01-01

Form-focused discovery activities allow language learners to grasp various aspects of a target language by contributing implicit knowledge by using discovered explicit knowledge. Moreover, such activities can assist learners to perceive and discover the features of their language input. In foreign language teaching environments, they can be used…

Implementing Verbal and Non-Verbal Activities in an Intercultural Collaboration Project for English Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fujii, Kiyomi; Hirotani, Maki

2015-01-01

Technological development offers language teachers a myriad of options for collaborative activities. Learners, in turn, benefit from increased opportunities to interact with people who can speak their target language. Research has previously highlighted the importance of developing learners' intercultural competence through such activities. The…

Age of acquisition modulates neural activity for both regular and irregular syntactic functions

PubMed Central

Hernandez, Arturo E.; Hofmann, Juliane; Kotz, Sonja A.

2007-01-01

Studies have found that neural activity is greater for irregular grammatical items than regular items. Findings with monolingual Spanish speakers have revealed a similar effect when making gender decisions for visually presented nouns. The current study extended previous studies by looking at the role of regularity in modulating differences in groups that differ in the age of acquisition of a language. Early and late learners of Spanish matched on measures of language proficiency were asked to make gender decisions to regular (-o for masculine and –a for feminine) and irregular items (which can end in e,l,n,r,s,t and z). Results revealed increased activity in left BA 44 for irregular compared to regular items in separate comparisons for both early and late learners. In addition, within group-comparisons revealed that neural activity for irregulars extended into left BA 47 for late learners and into left BA 6 for early learners. Direct comparisons between-groups revealed increased activity in left BA 44/45 for irregular items indicating the need for more extensive syntactic processing in late learners. The results revealed that processing of irregular grammatical gender leads to increased activity in left BA 44 and adjacent areas in the left IFG regardless of when a language is learned. Furthermore, these findings suggest differential recruitment of brain areas associated with grammatical processing in late learners. The results are discussed with regard to a model which considers L2 learning as emerging from the competitive interplay between two languages. PMID:17490895

Annotation-Based Learner's Personality Modeling in Distance Learning Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omheni, Nizar; Kalboussi, Anis; Mazhoud, Omar; Kacem, Ahmed Hadj

2016-01-01

Researchers in distance education are interested in observing and modeling learners' personality profiles, and adapting their learning experiences accordingly. When learners read and interact with their reading materials, they do unselfconscious activities like annotation which may be key feature of their personalities. Annotation activity…

Participation in online continuing education.

PubMed

Farrell, Barbara; Ward, Natalie; Jennings, Brad; Jones, Caitlin; Jorgenson, Derek; Gubbels-Smith, Ashley; Dolovich, Lisa; Kennie, Natalie

2016-02-01

The ADAPT (ADapting pharmacists' skills and Approaches to maximize Patients' drug Therapy effectiveness) e-learning programme requires weekly participation in module activities and facilitated discussion to support skill uptake. In this study, we sought to describe the extent and pattern of, satisfaction with and factors affecting participation in the initial programme offering and reasons for withdrawal. Mixed methods - convergent parallel approach. Participation was examined in qualitative data from discussion boards, assignments and action plans. Learner estimations of time commitment and action plan submission rates were calculated. Surveys (Likert scale and open-ended questions) included mid-point and final, exit and participation surveys. Eleven of 86 learners withdrew, most due to time constraints (eight completed an exit survey; seven said they would take ADAPT again). Thirty-five of 75 remaining learners completed a participation survey. Although 50-60% of the remaining 75 learners actively continued participating, only 15/35 respondents felt satisfied with their own participation. Learners spent 3-5 h/week (average) on module activities. Factors challenging participation included difficulty with technology, managing time and group work. Factors facilitating participation included willingness to learn (content of high interest) and supportive work environment. Being informed of programme time scheduling in advance was identified as a way to enhance participation. This study determined extent of learner participation in an online pharmacist continuing education programme and identified factors influencing participation. Interactions between learners and the online interface, content and with other learners are important considerations for designing online education programmes. Recommendations for programme changes were incorporated following this evaluation to facilitate participation. © 2015 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Participatory Multimedia Learning: Engaging Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiili, Kristian

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present a participatory multimedia learning model for use in designing multimedia learning environments that support an active learning process, creative participation, and learner engagement. Participatory multimedia learning can be defined as learning with systems that enable learners to produce part of the…

Learning To Learn: Western Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Gene L.

Building awareness of the self as learner is central to learning. Reflecting on past experiences helps individuals elucidate undetected characteristics of themselves as learners. Active learners are more likely to experiment with new learning strategies and take risks. Because of their inquiring dispositions, they self-monitor and self-evaluate…

Exploring Students' Emotional Responses and Participation in an Online Peer Assessment Activity: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Kun-Hung; Hou, Huei-Tse; Wu, Sheng-Yi

2014-01-01

In the social interactions among individuals of learning communities, including those individuals engaged in peer assessment activities, emotion may be a key factor in learning. However, research regarding the emotional response of learners in online peer assessment activities is relatively scarce. Detecting learners' emotion when they make…

Enrolment Purposes, Instructional Activities, and Perceptions of Attitudinal Learning in a Human Trafficking MOOC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Sunnie Lee; Kim, Woori

2016-01-01

This study examines learner enrolment purposes, perceptions on instructional activities and their relationship to learning gains in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for attitudinal change regarding human trafficking. Using an author-developed survey, learners reported their perceptions on instructional activities and learning gains within the…

Older Adult Learners: A Comparison of Active and Non-Active Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sloane-Seale, Atlanta; Kops, Bill

2007-01-01

This paper reports on a 2004 follow-up study conducted in partnership with the University of Manitoba Continuing Education Division and local senior's organizations. The partnership was formed in 2002-03 to promote applied research on lifelong learning and older adults, develop new and complement existing educational activities, and explore new…

Generating Language Activities in Real-Time for English Learners Using Language Muse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burstein, Jill; Madnani, Nitin; Sabatini, John; McCaffrey, Dan; Biggers, Kietha; Dreier, Kelsey

2017-01-01

K-12 education standards in the U.S. require all students to read complex texts across many subject areas. The "Language Muse™ Activity Palette" is a web-based language-instruction application that uses NLP algorithms and lexical resources to automatically generate language activities and support English language learners' content…

Ten Helpful Ideas for Teaching English to Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shin, Joan Kang

2006-01-01

This article offers ten suggestions for teaching young learners between the age of 7 and 12 based on language-teaching principles. They include supplementing activities with visuals, realia and movement; involving students in making visuals and realia; moving from activity to activity; teaching in themes; using stories and contexts familiar to…

Engaging Teachers as Learners: Modeling Professional Development for Adult Literacy Providers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanna, Mary Barbara; Salzman, James A.; Reynolds, Sharon L.; Fergus, Katherine B.

2010-01-01

As professional developers for the Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE) system in Ohio, the authors have focused their efforts over the last several years on more actively engaging adult basic education teachers as learners in the professional development they offer. By creating activities that engage teachers in active learning with their adult…

Active Learning Using Arbitrary Binary Valued Queries

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-10-01

active learning in the sense that the learner has complete choice in the information received. Specifically, we allow the learner to ask arbitrary yes...no questions. We consider both active learning under a fixed distribution and distribution-free active learning . In the case of active learning , the...a concept class is actively learnable iff it is finite, so that active learning is in fact less powerful than the usual passive learning model. We

The Roles of Structured Input Activities in Processing Instruction and the Kinds of Knowledge They Promote

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsden, Emma; Chen, Hsin-Ying

2011-01-01

This study aimed to isolate the effects of the two input activities in Processing Instruction: referential activities, which force learners to focus on a form and its meaning, and affective activities, which contain exemplars of the target form and require learners to process sentence meaning. One hundred and twenty 12-year-old Taiwanese learners…

Inhabitants of the Fresh-Water Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jorgensen, Joseph; Schroeder, Marlene

This learner's guide is designed to assist middle school students in studying freshwater organisms. Following a brief introduction to freshwater ecology, simple line drawings facilitate the identification of plants and animals common to Florida's freshwater ecosystems. Emphasis of the short text which accompanies each illustration is upon the…

Beyond Repeat after Me: Teaching Pronunciation to English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoshida, Marla Tritch

2016-01-01

This engaging text clearly presents essential concepts that teachers need to guide their students toward clearly intelligible pronunciation and more effective communication skills. Based on a sound theoretical background, the book presents practical, imaginative ways to teach and practice pronunciation that go beyond simple "Repeat after…

Computer Needs of Severely Mentally Retarded Persons.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flanagan, Kelly

1982-01-01

The article reviews technology applicable for use by severely mentally retarded learners. Descriptions are given of assistive devices (including communication aids), controls and interfaces (such as single switch access to standard software), and software (including games to teach cause and effect and simple matching and counting). (CL)

Computer vs. Workbook Instruction in Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagata, Noriko

1996-01-01

Compares the effectiveness of Nihongo-CALI (Japanese Computer Assisted Language Instruction) with non-CALI workbook instruction. Findings reveal that given the same grammar notes and exercises, ongoing intelligent computer feedback is more effective than simple workbook answer sheets for developing learners' grammatical skill in producing Japanese…

Planning and Teaching To Remember.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Nigel R.

2001-01-01

Suggests simple planning and instructional strategies to improve student learning and understanding for present and long -term application. The first section discusses learner-related issues. The second section focuses on the lesson plan (the introduction, the lesson body, and the lesson closure). The third section examines other strategies for…

Recognition of Learner's Personality Traits through Digital Annotations in Distance Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omheni, Nizar; Kalboussi, Anis; Mazhoud, Omar; Kacem, Ahmed Hadj

2017-01-01

Researchers in distance education are interested in observing and modelling of learner's personality profile, and adapting their learning experiences accordingly. When learners read and interact with their reading materials, they do unselfconscious activities like annotation which may be a key feature of their personalities. Annotation activity…

The Integration of Personal Learning Environments & Open Network Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tu, Chih-Hsiung; Sujo-Montes, Laura; Yen, Cherng-Jyh; Chan, Junn-Yih; Blocher, Michael

2012-01-01

Learning management systems traditionally provide structures to guide online learners to achieve their learning goals. Web 2.0 technology empowers learners to create, share, and organize their personal learning environments in open network environments; and allows learners to engage in social networking and collaborating activities. Advanced…

Beginning Learners' Development of Interactional Competence: Alignment Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tecedor, Marta

2016-01-01

This study examined the development of interactional competence (Hall, 1993; He & Young, 1998) by beginning learners of Spanish as indexed by their use of alignment moves. Discourse analysis techniques and quantitative data analysis were used to explore how 52 learners expressed alignment and changes in participation patterns in two sets of…

Building a Dynamic Online Learning Community among Adult Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Minjuan; Sierra, Christina; Folger, Terre

2003-01-01

Examines the nature of learning communities constructed among a diverse group of adult learners in an international online graduate-level course. Discusses independent work, team tasks, the variety of computer-mediated communication tools used, and implications for promoting adult learners' active participation in online learning and instructional…

Enhancing Motivation in Online Courses with Mobile Communication Tool Support: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaiprasurt, Chantorn; Esichaikul, Vatcharaporn

2013-01-01

Mobile technologies have helped establish new channels of communication among learners and instructors, potentially providing greater access to course information, and promoting easier access to course activities and learner motivation in online learning environments. The paper compares motivation between groups of learners being taught through an…

Factors Driving Learner Success in Online Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vu, Phu; Cao, Vien; Vu, Lan; Cepero, Jude

2014-01-01

This study examined factors that contributed to the success of online learners in an online professional development course. Research instruments included an online survey and learners' activity logs in an online professional development course for 512 in-service teachers. The findings showed that there were several factors affecting online…

The Indonesian EFL Learners' Motivation in Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salikin, Hairus; Bin-Tahir, Saidna Zulfiqar; Kusumaningputri, Reni; Yuliandari, Dian Puji

2017-01-01

The motivation will drive the EFL learners to be successful in reading. This study examined the Indonesian EFL learners' motivation in reading activity based on Deci and Ryans' theory of motivation including intrinsic and extrinsic. This study employed mixed-method design. The data obtained by distributing questionnaire and arranging the group…

Help Seeking: Agentic Learners Initiating Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, Anna Katarina

2018-01-01

Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to…

Collaborative Supervised Learning for Sensor Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wagstaff, Kiri L.; Rebbapragada, Umaa; Lane, Terran

2011-01-01

Collaboration methods for distributed machine-learning algorithms involve the specification of communication protocols for the learners, which can query other learners and/or broadcast their findings preemptively. Each learner incorporates information from its neighbors into its own training set, and they are thereby able to bootstrap each other to higher performance. Each learner resides at a different node in the sensor network and makes observations (collects data) independently of the other learners. After being seeded with an initial labeled training set, each learner proceeds to learn in an iterative fashion. New data is collected and classified. The learner can then either broadcast its most confident classifications for use by other learners, or can query neighbors for their classifications of its least confident items. As such, collaborative learning combines elements of both passive (broadcast) and active (query) learning. It also uses ideas from ensemble learning to combine the multiple responses to a given query into a single useful label. This approach has been evaluated against current non-collaborative alternatives, including training a single classifier and deploying it at all nodes with no further learning possible, and permitting learners to learn from their own most confident judgments, absent interaction with their neighbors. On several data sets, it has been consistently found that active collaboration is the best strategy for a distributed learner network. The main advantages include the ability for learning to take place autonomously by collaboration rather than by requiring intervention from an oracle (usually human), and also the ability to learn in a distributed environment, permitting decisions to be made in situ and to yield faster response time.

Creating a Global Community of Learners in Nursing and Beyond: Caring Science, Mindful Practice MOOC.

PubMed

Sitzman, Kathleen L; Jensen, Andrea; Chan, Sang

The aim was to examine the usefulness of a massive open online course (MOOC) on caring and mindfulness to a broad international audience that included nurses, allied health professionals, and others. MOOCs in higher education have been evident since 2008. Very few MOOCs on nursing topics have appeared since that time. Exploration was needed regarding how MOOCs could be employed to share nursing knowledge with national and international communities. Two "Caring Science, Mindful Practice" MOOC sessions were examined. Demographics, learner satisfaction, course flow, and perceived usefulness of content were analyzed. Learners from varied backgrounds participated. Higher than expected course activity levels and completion rates suggested effective learner engagement. Excellent course ratings demonstrated that content and delivery methods were effective. Active learners communicated specific plans to apply new knowledge in the future. MOOCs facilitate learning where participants learn about topics of interest in nursing and beyond.

Modeling the effects of multicontextual physics instruction on learner expectations and understanding of force and motion systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deese Becht, Sara-Maria Francis

1999-11-01

The purpose of this study is two-fold involving both practical and theoretical modeling components. The practical component, an experiential-learning phase, investigated a study population for effects that increasing levels of multicontextual physics activities have on student understanding of Newtonian systems of motion. This contextual-learning model measured learner convictions and non-response gaps and analyzed learner response trends on context, technology, challenge, growth, and success. The theoretical component, a model-building phase, designed a dynamic-knowing model for learning along a range of experiential tasks, from low to high context, monitored for indicators of learning in science and mathematics: learner academic performance and ability, learner control and academic attitude, and a learner non- response gap. This knowing model characterized a learner's process-of-knowing on a less to more expert- like learner-response continuum using performance and perspective indices associated with level of contextual- imagery referent system. Data for the contextual-learning model were collected on 180 secondary subjects: 72 middle and 108 high, with 36 physics subjects as local experts. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups differing only on context level of force and motion activities. Three levels of information were presented through context-based tasks: momentum constancy as inertia, momentum change as impulse, and momentum rate of change as force. The statistical analysis used a multi-level factorial design with repeated measures and discriminate analysis of response-conviction items. Subject grouping criteria included school level, ability level in science and mathematics, gender and race. Assessment criteria used pre/post performance scores, confidence level in physics concepts held, and attitude towards science, mathematics, and technology. Learner indices were computed from logit- transforms applied to learner outcomes and to study control and prediction criteria parameters. Findings suggest learner success rates vary with multicontextual experience level. When controlling for context, learner success seems to depend on technology level of assessment tool, learner attitude toward technology learning tools, learner attitude toward science and mathematics, and challenge level of force and motion problems. A learner non-response gap seems important when monitoring learner conviction. Application of the knowing model to the study population pictures learners on a journey towards success referenced to a local expert response.

Modality-specific processing precedes amodal linguistic processing during L2 sign language acquisition: A longitudinal study.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D

2016-02-01

The present study tracked activation pattern differences in response to sign language processing by late hearing second language learners of American Sign Language. Learners were scanned before the start of their language courses. They were scanned again after their first semester of instruction and their second, for a total of 10 months of instruction. The study aimed to characterize modality-specific to modality-general processing throughout the acquisition of sign language. Results indicated that before the acquisition of sign language, neural substrates related to modality-specific processing were present. After approximately 45 h of instruction, the learners transitioned into processing signs on a phonological basis (e.g., supramarginal gyrus, putamen). After one more semester of input, learners transitioned once more to a lexico-semantic processing stage (e.g., left inferior frontal gyrus) at which language control mechanisms (e.g., left caudate, cingulate gyrus) were activated. During these transitional steps right hemispheric recruitment was observed, with increasing left-lateralization, which is similar to other native signers and L2 learners of spoken language; however, specialization for sign language processing with activation in the inferior parietal lobule (i.e., angular gyrus), even for late learners, was observed. As such, the present study is the first to track L2 acquisition of sign language learners in order to characterize modality-independent and modality-specific mechanisms for bilingual language processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Development of Game-Based Learning Environment to Activate Interaction among Learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takaoka, Ryo; Shimokawa, Masayuki; Okamoto, Toshio

Many studies and systems that incorporate elements such as “pleasure” and “fun” in the game to improve a learner's motivation have been developed in the field of learning environments. However, few are the studies of situations where many learners gather at a single computer and participate in a game-based learning environment (GBLE), and where the GBLE designs the learning process by controlling the interactions between learners such as competition, collaboration, and learning by teaching. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework of educational control that induces and activates interaction between learners intentionally to create a learning opportunity that is based on the knowledge understanding model of each learner. In this paper, we explain the design philosophy and the framework of our GBLE called “Who becomes the king in the country of mathematics?” from a game viewpoint and describe the method of learning support control in the learning environment. In addition, we report the results of the learning experiment with our GBLE, which we carried out in a junior high school, and include some comments by a principal and a teacher. From the results of the experiment and some comments, we noticed that a game may play a significant role in weakening the learning relationship among students and creating new relationships in the world of the game. Furthermore, we discovered that learning support control of the GBLE has led to activation of the interaction between learners to some extent.

Lab4CE: A Remote Laboratory for Computer Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broisin, Julien; Venant, Rémi; Vidal, Philippe

2017-01-01

Remote practical activities have been demonstrated to be efficient when learners come to acquire inquiry skills. In computer science education, virtualization technologies are gaining popularity as this technological advance enables instructors to implement realistic practical learning activities, and learners to engage in authentic and…

Problems Encountered in Teaching/Learning Integrated Photosynthesis: A Case of Ineffective Pedagogical Practice?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Panijpan, Bhinyo; Ruenwongsa, Pintip; Sriwattanarothai, Namkang

2008-01-01

In this article we recount our experiences of teaching photosynthesis in an integrated way to secondary school students and teachers, science undergraduates and postgraduates. Conceptual questions were posed to investigate learners' fundamental understanding of simple light-dependent and light-independent processes taught to most students at…

Using the Creative Cognition Approach in Essay Assignments in Leadership Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atkinson, Tim

2018-01-01

This application brief covers, "The Final Question," an alternative essay design that encourages the learner to think creatively in Ph.D. Organization Theory or Leadership courses. "The Final Question" asks, "Do leaders change organizations or do organizations change leaders?" It is a simple question, but only the…

A Land-Use-Planning Simulation Using Google Earth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodzin, Alec M.; Cirucci, Lori

2009-01-01

Google Earth (GE) is proving to be a valuable tool in the science classroom for understanding the environment and making responsible environmental decisions (Bodzin 2008). GE provides learners with a dynamic mapping experience using a simple interface with a limited range of functions. This interface makes geospatial analysis accessible and…

Improving Motor Skills through Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lin

2004-01-01

In this article, the author discusses how to improve a child's motor skills through listening by using three simple steps--recording the auditory model, determining when to use the auditory model, and considering where to use the auditory model. She points out the importance of using a demonstration technique that helps learners understand the…

An Amusement Park Physics Competition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moll, Rachel F.

2010-01-01

Amusement park physics is a popular way to reinforce physics concepts and to motivate physics learners. This article describes a novel physics competition where students use simple tools to take amusement park ride measurements and use the data to answer challenging exam questions. Research into the impact of participating in the competition…

It Takes a Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weasmer, Jerie; Woods, Amelia Mays

2010-01-01

Modifying course plans to accommodate diverse learners seems simple in theory. However, when faced with specific applications, many teachers feel lost. In a school community, they need not feel alone. General classroom teachers have several sources of ongoing support available to help them extend their teaching repertoire to meet their students'…

A Helping Hand with Language Learning: Teaching French Vocabulary with Gesture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Alison

2016-01-01

Finding ways to make language teaching practices both active and effective is of great importance for young learners. However, extending the foreign language production of young learners in instructional settings beyond the naming of objects is often challenging. The memorisation abilities of very young learners (children aged 5-7) sometimes…

Elementary School EFL Learners' Vocabulary Learning: The Effects of Post-Reading Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Atay, Derin; Kurt, Gokce

2006-01-01

As language learning involves the acquisition of thousands of words, teachers and learners alike would like to know how vocabulary learning can be fostered, especially in EFL settings where learners frequently acquire impoverished lexicons, despite years of formal study. Research indicates that reading is important but not sufficient for…

Maximising Asian ESL Learners' Communicative Oral English via Drama

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Chamkaur

2016-01-01

This paper proposes that activities based on a variety of drama-based techniques could be valuable in giving Asian ESL learners opportunities to use communicative spoken English confidently and without restraint during their time in English-language-speaking countries. These learners often get anxious when in situations where they are required to…

Effects of Community Service-Learning on Heritage Language Learners' Attitudes toward Their Language and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pascual y Cabo, Diego; Prada, Josh; Lowther Pereira, Kelly

2017-01-01

This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish…

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Self-Regulatory Vocabulary Strategy Use and Their Vocabulary Size

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amirian, Seyed Mohammad Reza; Mallahi, Omid; Zaghi, Damoon

2015-01-01

Self-regulation is referred to as learners' self-generated ideas and actions which are systematically directed towards achieving educational goals and require learners' active participation in the learning process (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994). The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL students' self-regulation capacity…

Learner-Information Interaction: A Macro-Level Framework Characterizing Visual Cognitive Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sedig, Kamran; Liang, Hai-Ning

2008-01-01

Visual cognitive tools (VCTs) are external mental aids that maintain and display visual representations (VRs) of information (i.e., structures, objects, concepts, ideas, and problems). VCTs allow learners to operate upon the VRs to perform epistemic (i.e., reasoning and knowledge-based) activities. In VCTs, the mechanism by which learners operate…

Learner Agency and the Use of Affordances in Language-Exchange Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahn, Tae youn

2016-01-01

Language exchange refers to a learning partnership between two learners with different native languages who collaborate to help each other improve their proficiency in the other's language. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which language-exchange participants activate learner agency to construct opportunities for learning in…

A Multi-Perspective Investigation into Learners' Interaction in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çardak, Çigdem Suzan

2016-01-01

This article focusses on graduate level students' interactions during asynchronous CMC activities of an online course about the teaching profession in Turkey. The instructor of the course designed and facilitated a semester-long asynchronous CMC on forum discussions, and investigated the interaction of learners in multiple perspectives: learners'…

Virtual Simulations and Serious Games in a Laptop-Based University: Gauging Faculty and Student Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapralos, Bill; Hogan, Michelle; Pribetic, Antonin I.; Dubrowski, Adam

2011-01-01

Purpose: Gaming and interactive virtual simulation environments support a learner-centered educational model allowing learners to work through problems acquiring knowledge through an active, experiential learning approach. To develop effective virtual simulations and serious games, the views and perceptions of learners and educators must be…

Independence Pending: Teacher Behaviors Preceding Learner Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roesler, Rebecca A.

2017-01-01

The purposes of the present study were to identify the teacher behaviors that preceded learners' active participation in solving musical and technical problems and describe learners' roles in the problem-solving process. I applied an original model of problem solving to describe the behaviors of teachers and students in 161 rehearsal frames…

Guiding Learners into Reengagement through the SCALE Environment: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verginis, Ilias; Gouli, Evangelia; Gogoulou, Agoritsa; Grigoriadou, Maria

2011-01-01

The paper presents the facilities offered by the open learner model maintained in the web-based, adaptive, activity-oriented learning environment SCALE (Supporting Collaboration and Adaptation in a Learning Environment), in order to guide online students who become disengaged and support their reengagement. The open learner model (OLM_SCALE)…

Educating to the seismic risk with the community of learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miranda, Nicola

2013-04-01

The web has a lot of information available for teachers about seismology both at informal and at a scientific level. The average student, who approaches the study of seismology for the first time, lacks direct involvement in the study and it often happens that the simple informal knowledge does not result in learning and formalization. The teacher who wants to use web resources for the didactics, finds it is difficult to select information and adapt it to the school level, because of the short weekly time reserved for earth science studies. The seismologist, who gives a lecture in the school, has difficulty to understand how much of the knowledge transmitted will pass to the students. A way to solve these problems is to adopt the Community of Learners' method, creating groups of different-aged students directly involved in research activities and in the production of learning material, using websites organized for web research, production and sharing of ideas, as Jigsaw methodology suggests. The poster shown documents the experience I had with a group of students (aged from 14 to 18) in an Italian high school in Somma Vesuviana, near Naples. The method adopted is adaptable to any kind of technical-scientific issue. In this case seismology was the topic of the work group and thanks to the Community of Learners' method, all the students: -Started as apprentices, learning new things, questioning their knowledge, accessing new sources, using different channels and means of communication and debating with the others; -Moved to the role of teachers, sharing their own knowledge with the others, and explaining their own discoveries; -Became scientists specialized in something unknown to the other students, producers of new and original ideas to explain to the others who had different opinions and ideas. Thanks to the Community of Learners, they all became apprentices, teachers and scientists.

Investigating the Use of Inquiry & Web-Based Activities with Inclusive Biology Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodzin, Alec M.; Waller, Patricia L.; Edwards, Lana; Darlene Kale, Santoro

2007-01-01

A Web-integrated biology program is used to explore how to best assist inclusive high school students to learn biology with inquiry-based activities. Classroom adaptations and instructional strategies teachers may use to assist in promoting biology learning with inclusive learners are discussed.

Using Science Activities To Internalize Locus of Control. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowland, Paul McD.

This project was designed to investigate the effect of the use of cause-and-effect activities in the science curriculum on the locus of control of the learner. The purpose of this research is to find the effect of the activities on the learner's locus of control and attitude toward science at grades 7 through 10. A multivariate analysis of…

The Planning Illusion: Does Active Planning of a Learning Route Support Learning as Well as Learners Think It Does?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonestroo, Wilco J.; de Jong, Ton

2012-01-01

Is actively planning one's learning route through a learning domain beneficial for learning? Moreover, can learners accurately judge the extent to which planning has been beneficial for them? This study examined the effects of active planning on learning. Participants received a tool in which they created a learning route themselves before…

Effects of Three Forms of Reading-Based Output Activity on L2 Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rassaei, Ehsan

2017-01-01

The current study investigated the effects of three forms of output activity on EFL learners' recognition and recall of second language (L2) vocabulary. To this end, three groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were instructed to employ the following three output activities after reading two narrative texts: (1) summarizing the…

The Cerebral Basis for Language Learner Strategies: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Takeuchi, Osamu; Ikeda, Maiko; Mizumoto, Atsushi

2012-01-01

In this paper, we validate Macaro's (2006) model of strategy use among language learners by assessing the amount of neural activity around the prefrontal cortex, the supposed locus of working memory (WM). We also examine whether WM activation during first language (L1) strategy deployment is lower than WM activation during second language (L2)…

Associations of MC3R polymorphisms with physical activity in South African adolescents.

PubMed

Yako, Yandiswa Y; Hassan, Mogamat S; Erasmus, Rajiv T; van der Merwe, Lize; Janse van Rensburg, Susan; Matsha, Tandi Edith

2013-08-01

There is evidence demonstrating that the contribution of sedentary behavior and effect of physical activity on metabolic phenotypes is mediated by polymorphisms in genes. The type and frequency of physical activity was assessed by means of structured questionnaires in 1555 South African school learners. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and lipids were measured using standard procedures. The effect of different types and frequency of physical activity on obesity-related traits was assessed in relation to MC3R T6K and V81I genotypes in 430 of the learners. Levels of total cholesterol were significantly lower in learners carrying the MC3R T6K and V81I minor alleles, after adjusting for age, race, gender, and each specific physical activity category. An activity-by-genotype interaction was also detected: learners heterozygous for the V81I polymorphism and performed house chores often had reduced total cholesterol. Though no association was observed between frequency of physical activity and BMI, television viewing was significantly associated with an increase in height, weight and marginally with waist circumference. Our findings suggest that physical activity even in the form of house chores has a positive effect on metabolic traits and this effect is further enhanced in the presence of MC3R polymorphisms.

Synthesizing Technology Adoption and Learners' Approaches towards Active Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Kevin; Cheung, George; Wan, Kelvin; Brown, Ian; Luk, Green

2015-01-01

In understanding how active and blended learning approaches with learning technologies engagement in undergraduate education, current research models tend to undermine the effect of learners' variations, particularly regarding their styles and approaches to learning, on intention and use of learning technologies. This study contributes to further…

The Effect of Metacognitive Training and Prompting on Learning Success in Simulation-Based Physics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moser, Stephanie; Zumbach, Joerg; Deibl, Ines

2017-01-01

Computer-based simulations are of particular interest to physics learning because they allow learners to actively manipulate graphical visualizations of complex phenomena. However, learning with simulations requires supportive elements to scaffold learners' activities. Thus, our motivation was to investigate whether direct or indirect…

Active Learning Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zayapragassarazan, Z.; Kumar, Santosh

2012-01-01

Present generation students are primarily active learners with varied learning experiences and lecture courses may not suit all their learning needs. Effective learning involves providing students with a sense of progress and control over their own learning. This requires creating a situation where learners have a chance to try out or test their…

Flipping the Classroom for English Language Learners to Foster Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Hsiu-Ting

2015-01-01

This paper describes a structured attempt to integrate flip teaching into language classrooms using a WebQuest active learning strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impacts of flipping the classroom on English language learners' academic performance, learning attitudes, and participation levels. Adopting a…

Learner-Interface Interaction for Technology-Enhanced Active Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinha, Neelu; Khreisat, Laila; Sharma, Kiron

2009-01-01

Neelu Sinha, Laila Khreisat, and Kiron Sharma describe how learner-interface interaction promotes active learning in computer science education. In a pilot study using technology that combines DyKnow software with a hardware platform of pen-enabled HP Tablet notebook computers, Sinha, Khreisat, and Sharma created dynamic learning environments by…

Activating Metacognition through Online Learning Log (OLL)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurt, Mustafa

2007-01-01

This study aims to investigate the activation process of metacognition of learners who systematically reflect on their learning using Online Learning Logs (OLL) which were designed to encourage them to think about learning. The study is qualitative and attempts to identify the metacognitive strategies of learners and their attitudes towards OLL.…

Thai Learners' Linguistic Needs and Language Skills: Implications for Curriculum Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulla, Mark B.; Winitkun, Duangkamon

2017-01-01

Learners' success in language learning always has implications for curriculum and instruction. Thus, it is important to take into account the kinds of learning experiences that these learners will find helpful in learning English as a foreign language; and, highlight them when planning a curriculum and adapting classroom activities. This study,…

An Analysis of Learners' Intentions toward Virtual Reality Learning Based on Constructivist and Technology Acceptance Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Hsiu-Mei; Liaw, Shu-Sheng

2018-01-01

Within a constructivist paradigm, the virtual reality technology focuses on the learner's actively interactive learning processes and attempts to reduce the gap between the learner's knowledge and a real-life experience. Recently, virtual reality technologies have been developed for a wide range of applications in education, but further research…

High School Learners' Mental Construction during Solving Optimisation Problems in Calculus: A South African Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brijlall, Deonarain; Ndlovu, Zanele

2013-01-01

This qualitative case study in a rural school in Umgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, explored Grade 12 learners' mental constructions of mathematical knowledge during engagement with optimisation problems. Ten Grade 12 learners who do pure Mathemat-ics participated, and data were collected through structured activity sheets and…

Effectiveness of a Learner-Directed Model for e-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Stella; Barker, Trevor; Kumar, Vivekanandan Suresh

2016-01-01

It is a hard task to strike a balance between extents of control a learner exercises and the amount of guidance, active or passive, afforded by the learning environment to guide, support, and motivate the learner. Adaptive systems strive to find the right balance in a spectrum that spans between self-control and system-guidance. They also concern…

Practices and Prospects of Learner Autonomy: Teachers' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Asmari, AbdulRahman

2013-01-01

Language learning process works through the learners' own reflection on how they learn and it makes learners active in the sense that they learn to analyze their learning strategies. So they start making decisions, e.g., whether to improve them or not, and in which way. Generally, this trait is missing in traditional language teaching process and…

Digging Deeper into Learners' Experiences in MOOCs: Participation in Social Networks outside of MOOCs, Notetaking and Contexts Surrounding Content Consumption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veletsianos, George; Collier, Amy; Schneider, Emily

2015-01-01

Researchers describe with increasing confidence "what" they observe participants doing in massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, our understanding of learner activities in open courses is limited by researchers' extensive dependence on log file analyses and clickstream data to make inferences about learner behaviors. Further, the…

Toward a Unified Modeling of Learner's Growth Process and Flow Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Challco, Geiser C.; Andrade, Fernando R. H.; Borges, Simone S.; Bittencourt, Ig I.; Isotani, Seiji

2016-01-01

Flow is the affective state in which a learner is so engaged and involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. In this sense, to help students in the skill development and knowledge acquisition (referred to as learners' growth process) under optimal conditions, the instructional designers should create learning scenarios that favor…

Engage All Americans with Eclipse 2017 Through the Eyes of NASA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ng, C.; Young, C. A.; Mayo, L.; Cline, T. D.; Stephenson, B. E.; Debebe, A.; Lewis, E. M.; Odenwald, S. F.; Hill, S. W.

2016-12-01

Join NASA and millions in the U.S. and around the world in observing the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse. This presentation will discuss NASA's education and communication plans for the 2017 eclipse, highlighting some programs, resources, and citizen science activities that will engage and educate many across the country and beyond. NASA will offer unique observations of this celestial event from the ground to space. Additionally, there are do-it-yourself (DIY) science, lunar and math challenges, art contests, Makerspace ideas, and various activities for learners of all ages. Education resources and tool kits may be of particular interest to formal and informal educators. Find out what events are happening in your neighborhood, and plan your own eclipse parties with resources and activities. Last but not the least, experience the eclipse on August 21 and learn more through NASA broadcast programming that will include telescopic views from multiple locations, simple measurements, and live and taped interviews.

Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words.

PubMed

Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

2018-06-01

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1 environment, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English, performed a translation recognition task. In this task, participants judged whether pairs of words, with an L2 word preceding an L1 word, were translation words or not. The critical conditions compared the performance of learners to reject distractors that were related to the translation word (e.g., , pronounced as /bei 1/) of an L2 word (e.g., cup) in orthography (e.g., , bad in Chinese, pronounced as /huai 4/) or phonology (e.g., , sad in Chinese, pronounced as /bei 1/). Results of Experiment 1 showed less proficient learners were slower and less accurate to reject translation orthography distractors, as compared to unrelated controls, demonstrating a robust translation orthography interference effect. In contrast, their performance was not significantly different when rejecting translation phonology distractors, relative to unrelated controls, showing no translation phonology interference. The same patterns were observed in more proficient learners in Experiment 2. Together, these results suggest that when Chinese learners of English read English words, the orthographic information, but not the phonological information of the Chinese translation words is activated. In addition, this activation is not modulated by L2 proficiency.

A framework for developing rural academic general practices: a qualitative case study in rural Victoria.

PubMed

Brown, J B; Morrison, Tracy; Bryant, Melanie; Kassell, Lisa; Nestel, Debra

2015-01-01

There is increasing pressure for Australian rural general practices to engage in educational delivery as a means of addressing workforce issues and accommodating substantial increases in learners. For practices that have now developed a strong focus on education, there is the challenge to complement this by engaging in research activity. This study develops a rural academic general practice framework to assist rural practices in developing both comprehensive educational activity and a strong research focus thus moving towards functioning as mature academic units. A case study research design was used with the unit of analysis at the level of the rural general practice. Purposively sampled practices were recruited and individual interviews conducted with staff (supervisors, practice managers, nurses), learners (medical students, interns and registrars) and patients. Three practices hosted 'multi-level learners', two practices hosted one learner group and one had no learners. Forty-four individual interviews were conducted with staff, learners and patients. Audio recordings were transcribed for thematic analysis. After initial inductive coding, deductive analysis was undertaken with reference to recent literature and the expertise of the research team resulting in the rural academic general practice framework. Three key themes emerged with embedded subthemes. For the first theme, organisational considerations, subthemes were values/vision/culture, patient population and clinical services, staffing, physical infrastructure/equipment, funding streams and governance. For the second theme, educational considerations, subthemes were processes, clinical supervision, educational networks and learner presence. Third, for research considerations, there were the subthemes of attitude to research and research activity. The framework maps the development of a rural academic practice across these themes in four progressive stages: beginning, emerging, consolidating and established. The data enabled a framework to be constructed to map rural general practice activity with respect to activity characteristic of an academic general practice. The framework offers guidance to practices seeking to transition towards becoming a mature academic practice. The framework also offers guidance to educational institutions and funding bodies to support the development of academic activity in rural general practices. The strengths and limitations of the study design are outlined.

Exploring Lifelong Learners Engaged in an Astronomy-Related Massively Open Online Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buxner, Sanlyn; Impey, Chris David; Wenger, Matthew; Formanek, Martin; Romine, James M.

2016-01-01

Massively open online courses (MOOCs) are becoming increasingly popular ways to reach diverse lifelong learners all over the world. Although MOOCs resemble more formal classes (e.g. videos of content, quizzes, activities), they are often used by informal audiences from home. Recently, MOOCs have become more utilized by universities to conduct outreach as they explore how to use MOOCs to reach new potential learners. Despite the rapid adaption of MOOCs, little is known about individuals who choose to take a MOOC, how they interact with the course materials, and what motivates them to finish the course.We present results of a study of lifelong learners engaged in an astronomy "101" MOOC. Through analysis of registered learners' behaviors as well as self-reported responses to a survey about science, we were able to characterize a subset of the learners engaged in the MOOC during its first offering. Overall, 25363 learners from over 100 countries registered for the MOOC. Of those, 14900 accessed at least one part of the course. Learners were recruited to complete a survey of their knowledge and attitudes towards science. Of the learner group who opened the course, 2889 individuals completed the survey, 2465 of those were able to be linked to their usage of the MOOC through a unique identifier.Learners represented a wide-range of ages, professions, and previous science experience. The best predictors for MOOC completion were engagement in the first activity and first writing assignment and engagement in the online forum. Learners were very interested in science prior to their registration, had higher basic science knowledge that most undergraduate students enrolled in a parallel astronomy course, and used online searches and science sites to get their information about science. As we reach out to a worldwide audience to learners in these massively open online courses, understanding their motivations and behaviors will be essential. This work is helping us understand and characterize lifelong learners who are interested in engaging in these types of free-choice learning environments and better serve their needs.

Twelve tips on writing a discussion case that facilitates teaching and engages learners.

PubMed

Cohen, David A; Newman, Lori R; Fishman, Laurie N

2017-02-01

The authors share twelve practical tips on writing a case that engages learners in active learning and discussion. They first advise that, during the initial preparation of the case, authors should (1) identify the case goals and objectives, and (2) identify the level of the learners. When writing the case, authors should (3) use active and colorful language; (4) use patients' own descriptions rather than medical language; (5) allow the learners to interpret data themselves; (6) allow for natural discovery rather than presenting information chronologically; and (7) be realistic about interruptions in patient care. In addition, case authors should pay attention to methods that enhance discussion by (8) creating barriers to diagnostic or treatment options; (9) promoting questions and discussion over answers; (10) using cues to assure discussion flow and knowledge exploration; and (11) omitting details or inserting informational distractors. Finally, well-crafted questions are essential during the case presentation to engage learners in higher-order thinking; and to (12) stimulate curiosity and reflection.

Specialized hybrid learners resolve Rogers' paradox about the adaptive value of social learning.

PubMed

Kharratzadeh, Milad; Montrey, Marcel; Metz, Alex; Shultz, Thomas R

2017-02-07

Culture is considered an evolutionary adaptation that enhances reproductive fitness. A common explanation is that social learning, the learning mechanism underlying cultural transmission, enhances mean fitness by avoiding the costs of individual learning. This explanation was famously contradicted by Rogers (1988), who used a simple mathematical model to show that cheap social learning can invade a population without raising its mean fitness. He concluded that some crucial factor remained unaccounted for, which would reverse this surprising result. Here we extend this model to include a more complex environment and limited resources, where individuals cannot reliably learn everything about the environment on their own. Under such conditions, cheap social learning evolves and enhances mean fitness, via hybrid learners capable of specializing their individual learning. We then show that while spatial or social constraints hinder the evolution of hybrid learners, a novel social learning strategy, complementary copying, can mitigate these effects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Teaching Electric Circuits: Teachers' Perceptions and Learners' Misconceptions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moodley, Kimera; Gaigher, Estelle

2017-06-01

An exploratory case study involving six grade 9 science teachers was undertaken to probe how teachers' understanding of learners' misconceptions relate to their perceptions about teaching simple circuits. The participants' understanding of documented misconceptions in electricity were explored by means of a questionnaire, while their perceptions about teaching electric circuits were also explored in the questionnaire, followed by a semi-structured interview. Results were analysed using content analysis and interpreted using pedagogical content knowledge as a theoretical lens. The results indicated that understanding learners' misconceptions did not always correlate with conceptual perceptions about teaching electric circuits. While fair understanding of misconceptions was demonstrated by teachers who studied Physics at undergraduate level, only those who also held qualifications in Education showed conceptual perceptions about teaching electricity. Teachers who did not study Science Education revealed technical perceptions, focused on facts, demonstrations and calculations. From these results, a developmental model for pedagogical content knowledge was proposed. It was recommended that teacher education programs should involve misconceptions and also facilitate the development of conceptual perceptions about teaching.

Inquiry-based Science Activities Using The Infrared Zoo and Infrared Yellowstone Resources at Cool Cosmos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Daou, D.; Gauthier, A.

2003-12-01

Inquiry-based activities that utilize the Cool Cosmos image galleries have been designed and developed by K12 teachers enrolled in The Invisible Universe Online for Teachers course. The exploration activities integrate the Our Infrared World Gallery (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/our_ir_world_gallery.html) with either the Infrared Zoo gallery (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/index.html) or the Infrared Yellowstone image http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_yellowstone/index.html) and video (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/videos/ir_yellowstone/index.html) galleries. Complete instructor guides have been developed for the activities and will be presented by the authors in poster and CD form. Although the activities are written for middle and highschool learners, they can easily be adapted for college audiences. The Our Infrared World Gallery exploration helps learners think critically about visible light and infrared light as they compare sets of images (IR and visible light) of known objects. For example: by taking a regular photograph of a running faucet, can you tell if it is running hot or cold water? What new information does the IR image give you? The Infrared Zoo activities encourage learners to investigate the differences between warm and cold blooded animals by comparing sets of IR and visible images. In one activity, learners take on the role of a pit viper seeking prey in various desert and woodland settings. The main activities are extended into the real world by discussing and researching industrial, medical, and societal applications of infrared technologies. The Infrared Yellowstone lessons give learners a unique perspective on Yellowstone National Park and it's spectacular geologic and geothermal features. Infrared video technology is highlighted as learners make detailed observations about the visible and infrared views of the natural phenomena. The "Cool Cosmos" EPO activities are coordinated and managed by the SIRTF Science Center, based at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center on the campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. You can find Cool Cosmos at http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/

Science for English Language Learners: K-12 Classroom Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fathman, Ann K.; Crowther, David T.

2005-01-01

It's a simple fact: Doing the best job possible with linguistically and culturally diverse students, a strong foundation in how best to teach both science and language is needed. This comprehensive guide will expand expertise in teaching science content and processes, in language development and literacy, and in inquiry-based teaching. Plus it…

Leveraging a Sorting Task as a Measure of Knowledge Structure in Bilingual Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Hengtao; Clariana, Roy

2017-01-01

This descriptive exploratory study considers whether a simple sorting task can elicit readers' knowledge structure in learners' first and second language. In this investigation, knowledge structure is considered from a symbolic connectionist viewpoint as the fundamental pre-meaningful aspect of knowledge, where structure is the precursor of…

The Writing Workshop and the Adult Learner.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peelen, Carolyn A.

Experience and research have shown that writing workshops are an excellent tool for improving workers' writing skills. In the past 5 years, the emphasis of writing instruction has shifted from a focus primarily on handwriting, correct spelling, and simple reinforcement of skills to a focus on empowering students by emphasizing fluency and student…

Having an Operation: An ESL Workbook. English as a Second Language Community Survival Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabinowitz, Myrna

This workbook, written in simple English with pictographs, helps adult learners of English in British Columbia (Canada) deal with biological and medical needs and hospital patient visits. Lessons include parts of the body, nurses' and doctors' examination and instructions, general health problems, hospital items, hospital admissions, and pre- and…

The Effects of Mode and Task Complexity on Second Language Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vasylets, Olena; Gilabert, Roger; Manchón, Rosa M.

2017-01-01

Taking a psycholinguistic orientation within task-based language teaching scholarship, this study investigated the effects of mode (oral vs. written) and task complexity on second language (L2) performance. The participants were 78 Catalan/Spanish learners of English as a foreign language. Half of the participants performed the simple and complex…

It Takes Two: Contrasting Tasks and Contrasting Structures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenstein, Miriam; And Others

1982-01-01

Examines and compares two measures of adult second language learner performance: cued production and elicited imitation. Discusses the utility of each in terms of the contrasting results of the tasks on a carefully delineated area of grammar, namely the related structure of third person simple present and present progressive in WH-questions. (EKN)

Ensemble Classifier Strategy Based on Transient Feature Fusion in Electronic Nose

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bagheri, Mohammad Ali; Montazer, Gholam Ali

2011-09-01

In this paper, we test the performance of several ensembles of classifiers and each base learner has been trained on different types of extracted features. Experimental results show the potential benefits introduced by the usage of simple ensemble classification systems for the integration of different types of transient features.

"Autograph" in the KS3 Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catley, Alan

2006-01-01

In this article, the author shows some simple examples of ways in which "Autograph" can enhance learning in the KS3 curriculum. He began using version 2 with A-level students to help them visualise concepts in pure mathematics. He has "Autograph" projected to the front board to keep learners focused on mathematical activity…

Talk Like a Scientist! Simple "Frames" to Scaffold the Language of Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoffman, Lisa

2013-01-01

This article shares a teaching strategy for science teachers to use when supporting language development among English language learners. Students from other language backgrounds who are learning English need to learn both grade-level academic content and the language necessary to express scientific concepts. However, most science teachers are not…

Effects of Sleep on Performance of a Keyboard Melody

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons, Amy L.; Duke, Robert A.

2006-01-01

Recent research has shown that both the speed and accuracy of novel motor skills improve during sleep in a process called consolidation. Such off-line learning in the absence of practice as yet has been experimentally observed only with learners performing relatively simple tasks. In the experiment we report here, we tested whether experienced…

Answer Markup Algorithms for Southeast Asian Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, George M.

1991-01-01

Typical markup methods for providing feedback to foreign language learners are not applicable to languages not written in a strictly linear fashion. A modification of Hart's edit markup software is described, along with a second variation based on a simple edit distance algorithm adapted to a general Southeast Asian font system. (10 references)…

From Restaurants to Board Rooms: How Initiating Negotiations Teaches Management Principles and Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volkema, Roger J.; Kapoutsis, Ilias

2016-01-01

Negotiation is an interpersonal process common to everyday personal and professional success. Yet individuals often fail to recognize opportunities for initiating negotiations and the immediate and long-term implications of these oversights for themselves and others. This article describes a simple yet rich negotiation exercise that learners can…

Development of a New Method for Assembling a Bipolar DC Motor as a Teaching Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Yuki; Sakaki, Kei; Sakaki, Mamoru

2017-05-01

A simple handmade motor is a commonly used teaching aid for explaining the theory of the DC motor in science classes around the world. Kits that can be used by children to craft a simple motor are commercially available, and videos of assembling these motors are easily found on the internet. Although the design of this motor is simple, it is unipolar, meaning that the rotor consists of a single dipole. Thus, the Lorentz force acts only on one side of the coil per revolution. This decreases the energy conversion efficiency and requires the learners to turn the rotor using their hands in order to initiate rotation.

Facebook Activities and the Investment of L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafie, Latisha Asmaak; Yaacob, Aizan; Singh, Paramjit Kaur Karpal

2016-01-01

The article discusses the investment of L2 learners in the English language on Facebook that they portrayed through their Facebook activities. It studied four informants consisted of diploma students in a Malaysian university. The study consisted of 14 weeks of online observation and semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from online…

Using Telephone Conversations to Develop Awareness of Pragmatic Skills: An Activity-Theory-Driven Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xia, Saihua

2009-01-01

This paper investigates ESL learners' awareness of pragmatic skills utilizing an activity-theory driven approach to perform an inquiry task into problem-solving service call conversations (PSSCs) between native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers of English (NNSs). Eight high-intermediate ESL learners, from five different language backgrounds,…

The Effects of Pre-Reading Activities on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moghaddam, Nahid Nemati; Mahmoudi, Asgar

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effects of three types of pre-reading activities (movie-watching, vocabulary presentation, and pre-reading summarization) on the reading comprehension of 76 elementary-level EFL Iranian learners. The participants were randomly assigned to one control and three experimental conditions and then a pretest was given to…

Best Practices in Learning Space Design: Engaging Users

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grummon, Phyllis T. H.

2009-01-01

Conceptions of the learning process have varied over time, from seeing learners as "blank slates" for a teacher to fill to the view that, unless a learner is engaged in actively constructing knowledge, little will be learned or retained. As research on the physiological aspects of learning has revealed, active engagement with the learning…

Clinical staff development: planning and teaching for desired outcomes.

PubMed

Harton, Brenda B

2007-01-01

Nursing staff development educators facilitate learning activities to promote learner retention of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural, and meta-cognitive. The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy provides a modern framework for the cognitive process dimension of knowledge and guides the nursing educator in planning activities that will assure learner progress along the learning continuum.

Usage of Mother Tongue in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tosuncuoglu, Irfan

2012-01-01

In Turkey, where English is a foreign language and where learners share the same native language, teachers are often reluctant to use small group speaking activities because the learners do the ranking, bridge the information gap, or find an answer activities using their first (native) language. This article studies the problem and suggests a…

The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Activities in Enhancing EFL Learners' Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrayah, Hassan

2018-01-01

This research-paper aims at examining the effectiveness of cooperative learning activities in enhancing EFL learners' fluency. The researcher has used the descriptive approach, recorded interviews for testing fluency as tools of data collection and the software program SPSS as a tool for the statistical treatment of data. Research sample consists…

Role- and Relationship-Based Identity Management for Privacy-Enhanced E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anwar, Mohd; Greer, Jim

2012-01-01

An e-learning discussion forum, an essential component of today's e-learning systems, offers a platform for social learning activities. However, as learners participate in the discussion forum, privacy emerges as a major concern. Privacy concerns in social learning activities originate from one learner's inability to convey a desired presentation…

Do Specific Classroom Reading Activities Predict English Language Learners' Later Reading Achievement?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee; Orosco, Michael J.; Kudo, Milagros Fatima

2017-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between elementary classroom (N = 50) reading activities in Year 1 and reading performance (i.e., passage comprehension, letter-word identification, and word attack) 1 year later for English language learners (ELLs; N = 270). A cross-classification hierarchical model indicated that compared to other reading…

Seeking the General Explanation: A Test of Inductive Activities for Learning and Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shemwell, Jonathan T.; Chase, Catherine C.; Schwartz, Daniel L.

2015-01-01

Evaluating the relation between evidence and theory should be a central activity for science learners. Evaluation comprises both hypothetico-deductive analysis, where theory precedes evidence, and inductive synthesis, where theory emerges from evidence. There is mounting evidence that induction is an especially good way to help learners grasp the…

Fostering learners' reflection and self-assessment.

PubMed

Westberg, J; Jason, H

1994-05-01

In most medical schools and residency programs, little or no attention is given to fostering learners' reflection or self-assessment. Yet learners who do not value or who are not effective at these skills are unlikely to extract the maximum benefit from their education. They are at risk of becoming unsafe physicians. To be optimally helpful, teachers need access to the diagnostic information about learners that is provided by their reflections and self-assessments. There are major barriers to learners being reflective and self-assessing. Medicine is dominated by unreflective doing. In the fiercely competitive environment of many teaching programs, many learners correctly perceive that it is unsafe to reveal their fears and deficiencies. Learners often retain this cautious posture even after moving to programs where it is unnecessary. Many learners and teachers have grown accustomed to authoritarian educational approaches in which teachers decide what the learners need and unilaterally evaluate their performance. In this review of the available literature, we summarize the compelling reasons for fostering reflection and self-assessment and for helping learners become their own coaches. Specific strategies and tools for creating programs that foster these values and activities are presented.

The Relationship between Reading Proficiency and Reading Strategy Use: A Study of Adult ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Jiuhan; Nisbet, Deanna

2014-01-01

This article explores the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among 121 adult ESL learners. Reading strategy use was measured by the SORS, and reading proficiency was determined by the CASAS Reading Test and BEST Literacy Test. Findings of the study reveal that (a) adult ESL learners are active strategies users; (b)…

Creative, Kinesthetic Activities to Motivate Young Learners to Communicate: A Conversation with Paula Garrett-Rucks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devall, Kelly Davidson

2015-01-01

This article presents a question and answer session in which Paula Garrett-Rucks discusses how creativity and kinesthetics motivate young language learners, the type of characteristics she might consider for different age groups in planning lessons, her views on the goals of world language teachers of young learners, and what a typical lesson…

A Comparative Study between Iranian and Japanese Students' Conceptions of "Ideal English Lesson"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jafari, Sakineh; Ketabi, Saeed

2014-01-01

With the shift in language teaching towards a more learner-centered approach, there is now an emphasis on considering learners' views on what goes on in the classroom. Involving learners in selecting and evaluating classroom activities as well as listening to their voices and preferences can be helpful for teachers in planning lesson and designing…

Constructivist Pedagogy in Strategic Reading Instruction: Exploring Pathways to Learner Development in the English as a Second Language (ESL) Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Lawrence Jun

2008-01-01

The study explored English as a Second Language (ESL) learner development. In particular, it focused on investigating learners' understanding of reading and their willingness to be engaged in strategic reading in participatory classroom activities. It also examined possible effects of such pedagogy on reading performance. The context was a…

Is Collaborative Learners' Adoption of Metacognitive Regulation Related to Students' Content Processing Strategies and the Level of Transactivity in Their Peer Discussions?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Backer, Liesje; Van Keer, Hilde; Valcke, Martin

2017-01-01

The present study investigates collaborative learners' adoption of key regulation activities (i.e., orienting, planning, monitoring, and evaluating) and a deep-level regulation approach in relation to characteristics of their collaboration on the cognitive and communicative level. More specifically, the correlation of collaborative learners'…

PETALL in Action: Latest Developments and Future Directions of the EU-Funded Project Pan-European Task Activities for Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopes, António

2016-01-01

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) proposes Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) as an important strategy to develop the learners' linguistic competences along with their communicative skills. Since it is learner-centred and relies mostly on engaging learners in meaningful communicative interchanges in a foreign language, it allows…

Choosing to Interact: Exploring the Relationship between Learner Personality, Attitudes, and Tutorial Dialogue Participation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezen-Can, Aysu; Boyer, Kristy Elizabeth

2015-01-01

The tremendous effectiveness of intelligent tutoring systems is due in large part to their interactivity. However, when learners are free to choose the extent to which they interact with a tutoring system, not all learners do so actively. This paper examines a study with a natural language tutorial dialogue system for computer science, in which…

Comparing Core-Image-Based Basic Verb Learning in an EFL Junior High School: Learner-Centered and Teacher-Centered Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamagata, Satoshi

2018-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of two types of core-image-based basic verb learning approaches: the learner-centered and the teacher-centered approaches. The learner-centered approach was an activity in which participants found semantic relationships among several definitions of each basic target verb through a picture-elucidated card…

Can You Hear Me Now? Marketing Essentials for Audiologists in a Noisy Health Care World

PubMed Central

Rudden, DAnne

2016-01-01

Audiologists, even those with a strong acumen for business, are not traditionally taught the basics of creating a robust practice identity and dynamic marketing plan. This activity will teach learners how to create a distinct brand that separates them from others in a competitive and distracted marketplace. Additionally, learners will gain an understanding for how to blend traditional marketing tools with more modern online options and social media. Upon completion, learners will be familiar with the skills necessary to actively create, implement, and track the effectiveness of their marketing strategy using proven methodologies. PMID:28028325

Can You Hear Me Now? Marketing Essentials for Audiologists in a Noisy Health Care World.

PubMed

Rudden, DAnne

2016-11-01

Audiologists, even those with a strong acumen for business, are not traditionally taught the basics of creating a robust practice identity and dynamic marketing plan. This activity will teach learners how to create a distinct brand that separates them from others in a competitive and distracted marketplace. Additionally, learners will gain an understanding for how to blend traditional marketing tools with more modern online options and social media. Upon completion, learners will be familiar with the skills necessary to actively create, implement, and track the effectiveness of their marketing strategy using proven methodologies.

The effect of curricular activities on learner autonomy: the perspective of undergraduate mechanical engineering students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duarte, M.; Leite, C.; Mouraz, A.

2016-01-01

This study researches how first-year engineering students perceived the influence of curricular activities on their own learning autonomy, measured with an adaptation of the Personal Responsibility Orientation to Self-direction in Learning Scale (PRO-SDLS). Participants were questioned to assess the influence of the teacher's role. The results indicate that learners' characteristics (motivation and self-efficacy) contribute more to learner autonomy (LA) than the teaching-learning transaction (control and initiative), as in the original PRO-SDLS validation. The most autonomous learners presented higher values in all LA components and dimensions, but the differences were greater in motivation and initiative. The participants with higher LA were not as dependent on the teacher, regarding assessment, the completion of classroom tasks and deadlines. Regardless of the degree of autonomy in learning, all participants viewed teachers as the main source of information. Therefore, LA plays an important role in teaching activities planning. Suggestions for adjustments and more flexible learning scenarios are formulated.

Understanding communication between emergency and consulting physicians: a qualitative study that describes and defines the essential elements of the emergency department consultation-referral process for the junior learner.

PubMed

Chan, Teresa; Orlich, Donika; Kulasegaram, Kulamakan; Sherbino, Jonathan

2013-01-01

To define the important elements of an emergency department (ED) consultation request and to develop a simple model of the process. From March to September 2010, 61 physicians (21 emergency medicine [EM], 20 general surgery [GS], 20 internal medicine [IM]; 31 residents, 30 attending staff) were questioned about how junior learners should be taught about ED consultation. Two investigators independently reviewed focus group and interview transcripts using grounded theory to generate an index of themes until saturation was reached. Disagreements were resolved by consensus, yielding an inventory of themes and subthemes. All transcripts were coded using this index of themes; 30% of transcripts were coded in duplicate to determine the agreement. A total of 245 themes and subthemes were identified. The agreement between reviewers was 77%. Important themes in the process were as follows: initial preparation and review of investigations by EM physician (overall endorsement 87% [range 70-100% in different groups]); identification of involved parties (patient and involved physicians) (100%); hypothesis of patient's diagnosis (75% [range 62-83%]) or question for the consulting physician (70% [range 55-95%]); urgency (100%) and stability (74% [range 62-80%]); questions from the consultant (100%); discussion/communication (98% [range 95-100%]); and feedback (98% [range 95-100%]). These components were reorganized into a simple framework (PIQUED). Each clinical specialty significantly contributed to the model (χ2  =  7.9; p value  =  0.019). Each group contributed uniquely to the final list of important elements (percent contributions: EM, 57%; GS, 41%; IM, 64%). We define important elements of an ED consultation with input from emergency and consulting physicians. We propose a model that organizes these elements into a simple framework (PIQUED) that may be valuable for junior learners.

Gender agreement violations modulate beta oscillatory dynamics during sentence comprehension: A comparison of second language learners and native speakers.

PubMed

Lewis, Ashley Glen; Lemhӧfer, Kristin; Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs; Schriefers, Herbert

2016-08-01

For native speakers, many studies suggest a link between oscillatory neural activity in the beta frequency range and syntactic processing. For late second language (L2) learners on the other hand, the extent to which the neural architecture supporting syntactic processing is similar to or different from that of native speakers is still unclear. In a series of four experiments, we used electroencephalography to investigate the link between beta oscillatory activity and the processing of grammatical gender agreement in Dutch determiner-noun pairs, for Dutch native speakers, and for German L2 learners of Dutch. In Experiment 1 we show that for native speakers, grammatical gender agreement violations are yet another among many syntactic factors that modulate beta oscillatory activity during sentence comprehension. Beta power is higher for grammatically acceptable target words than for those that mismatch in grammatical gender with their preceding determiner. In Experiment 2 we observed no such beta modulations for L2 learners, irrespective of whether trials were sorted according to objective or subjective syntactic correctness. Experiment 3 ruled out that the absence of a beta effect for the L2 learners in Experiment 2 was due to repetition of the target nouns in objectively correct and incorrect determiner-noun pairs. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that when L2 learners are required to explicitly focus on grammatical information, they show modulations of beta oscillatory activity, comparable to those of native speakers, but only when trials are sorted according to participants' idiosyncratic lexical representations of the grammatical gender of target nouns. Together, these findings suggest that beta power in L2 learners is sensitive to violations of grammatical gender agreement, but only when the importance of grammatical information is highlighted, and only when participants' subjective lexical representations are taken into account. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learners' perspectives on the provision of condoms in South African public schools.

PubMed

de Bruin, W E; Panday-Soobrayan, S

2017-12-01

A stubborn health challenge for learners in South African public schools concerns sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). In 2015, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) proposed the provision of condoms and SRHR-services to learners in schools. This study aimed to contribute to the finalisation and implementation of DBE's policy by exploring learners' perspectives on the provision of condoms and SRHR-services in schools. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted with learners (n = 116) from 33 public schools, to assess their attitudes, social influences, and needs and desires regarding condom provision and SRHR-services in schools. The majority of learners did not support condom provision in schools as they feared that it may increase sexual activity. Contrarily, they supported the provision of other SRHR-services as clinics fail to offer youth-friendly services. Learners' sexual behaviour and access to SRHR-services are strongly determined by their social environment, including traditional norms and values, and social-pressure from peers and adults. Learners' most pressing needs and desires to access condoms and SRHR-services in school concerned respect, privacy and confidentiality of such service provision. Implementation of DBE's policy must be preceded by an evidence-informed advocacy campaign to debunk myths about the risk of increased sexual activity, to advocate for why such services are needed, to shift societal norms towards open discussion of adolescent SRHR and to grapple with the juxtaposition of being legally empowered but socially inhibited to protect oneself from HIV, STIs and early pregnancy. Provision of condoms and other SRHR-services in schools must be sensitive to learners' privacy and confidentiality to minimise stigma and discrimination.

An efficient and effective teaching model for ambulatory education.

PubMed

Regan-Smith, Martha; Young, William W; Keller, Adam M

2002-07-01

Teaching and learning in the ambulatory setting have been described as inefficient, variable, and unpredictable. A model of ambulatory teaching that was piloted in three settings (1973-1981 in a university-affiliated outpatient clinic in Portland, Oregon, 1996-2000 in a community outpatient clinic, and 2000-2001 in an outpatient clinic serving Dartmouth Medical School's teaching hospital) that combines a system of education and a system of patient care is presented. Fully integrating learners into the office practice using creative scheduling, pre-rotation learning, and learner competence certification enabled the learners to provide care in roles traditionally fulfilled by physicians and nurses. Practice redesign made learners active members of the patient care team by involving them in such tasks as patient intake, histories and physicals, patient education, and monitoring of patient progress between visits. So that learners can be active members of the patient care team on the first day of clinic, pre-training is provided by the clerkship or residency so that they are able to competently provide care in the time available. To assure effective education, teaching and learning times are explicitly scheduled by parallel booking of patients for the learner and the preceptor at the same time. In the pilot settings this teaching model maintained or improved preceptor productivity and on-time efficiency compared with these outcomes of traditional scheduling. The time spent alone with patients, in direct observation by preceptors, and for scheduled case discussion was appreciated by learners. Increased satisfaction was enjoyed by learners, teachers, clinic staff, and patients. Barriers to implementation include too few examining rooms, inability to manipulate patient appointment schedules, and learners' not being present in a teaching clinic all the time.

An Analysis of Activities in Saudi Arabian Middle School Science Textbooks and Workbooks for the Inclusion of Essential Features of Inquiry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aldahmash, Abdulwali H.; Mansour, Nasser S.; Alshamrani, Saeed M.; Almohi, Saeed

2016-12-01

This study examines Saudi Arabian middle school science textbooks' coverage of the essential features of scientific inquiry. All activities in the middle school science textbooks and workbooks were analyzed by using the scientific inquiry `essential features' rubric. The results indicated that the essential features are included in about 59 % of the analyzed science activities. However, feature 2, `making learner give priority to evidence in responding to questions' and feature 3, `allowing learner to formulate explanations from evidence' appeared more frequently than the other three features (feature 1: engaging learner in scientifically oriented questions, feature 4: helping learner connect explanations to scientific knowledge, and feature 5: helping learner communicate and justify explanations to others), whether in the activities as a whole, or in the activities included in each of the four science domains (physical science, Earth science, life science and chemistry). These features are represented in almost all activities. This means that almost all activities in the middle school science textbooks and the workbooks include features 2 and 3. Meanwhile, the mean level of inclusion of the five essential features of scientific inquiry found in the middle school science textbooks and workbooks as a whole is 2.55. However, results found for features 1, 4, 5 and for in-level inclusion of the inquiry features in each of the science domains indicate that the inclusion of the essential inquiry features is teacher-centred. As a result, neither science textbooks nor workbooks provide students with the opportunity or encouragement to develop their inquiry skills. Consequently, the results suggest important directions for educational administrators and policy-makers in the preparation and use of science educational content.

Reducing Annotation Effort Using Generalized Expectation Criteria

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-11-30

constraints additionally consider input variables. Active learning is a related problem in which the learner can choose the particular instances to be...labeled. In pool-based active learning [Cohn et al., 1994], the learner has access to a set of unlabeled instances, and can choose the instance that...has the highest expected utility according to some metric. A standard pool- based active learning method is uncertainty sampling [Lewis and Catlett

The influence of professional expertise and task complexity upon the potency of the contextual interference effect.

PubMed

Ollis, Stewart; Button, Chris; Fairweather, Malcolm

2005-03-01

The contextual interference (CI) effect has been investigated through practice schedule manipulations within both basic and applied studies. Despite extensive research activity there is little conclusive evidence regarding the optimal practice structure of real world manipulative tasks in professional training settings. The present study therefore assessed the efficacy of practising simple and complex knot-tying skills in professional fire-fighters training. Forty-eight participants were quasi-randomly assigned to various practice schedules along the CI continuum. Twenty-four participants were students selected for their novice knot-tying capabilities and 24 were experienced fire-fighters who were more 'experienced knot-tiers'. They were assessed for skill acquisition, retention and transfer effects having practiced tying knots classified as simple or complex. Surprisingly, high levels of CI scheduling enhance learning for novices even when practising a complex task. The findings also revealed that CI benefits are most apparent as learners engage in tasks high in transfer distality. In conclusion, complexity and experience are mediating factors influencing the potency of the CI training effect in real-world settings.

A Bolman and Deal Framework of Science Teachers' Beliefs on Teacher Preparation and Reform Practices for Diverse Learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitmyer, Charnita P.

This dissertation uses Bolman and Deal's Four Framework approach to reframing an organization to examine science teachers' beliefs on teacher preparation and reform practices for diverse learners. Despite the national emphasis on "science for all students" in the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 2011), some traditionally underserved groups tend to underperform on standardized measures of science learning (Kober, 2001; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Bracey, 2009; Kozol, 2009, 2007; PCAST, 2012); and teachers struggle to meet the needs of these students (Hira, 2010). The literature is replete with calls for a better understanding of teacher quality as an entry point into increased student achievement in science. In the current study, the 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (NSSME) was used to gain an understanding of science teacher quality in the United States, and SPSS 22.0 software was used to evaluate descriptive and inferential statistics, including bivariate correlation analysis, simple linear regression, and a multiple regression of the survey responses. The findings indicated that professional development was the most salient predictor of teachers' preparedness to teach diverse learners. Findings further showed that teachers who held favorable perceptions of preparedness to teach diverse learners were more likely to use reform-oriented practices. This study contributes to an emerging area of research on science teacher quality and its influence on instructional reform for diverse learners. The study concludes with a discussion of supports and obstacles that may enable or inhibit the development of these relationships.

Lurking and L2 Learners on a Facebook Group: The Voices of the Invisibles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafie, Latisha Asmaak; Yaacob, Aizan; Singh, Paramjit Kaur Karpal

2016-01-01

This qualitative research investigates the practice of lurking among English as a second language (ESL) learners in a Facebook group discussion. Lurking is a term used to describe the activity of following and observing any online discussions or activities without contributing to the discussions. Lurkers are often accused of being invisible and…

Impacts of the Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy on English Learners' Reading Comprehension, Strategy Use, and Active Learning Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Lu-Fang

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether an English reading course integrated with the problem-based learning approach could foster foreign language learners' reading comprehension ability, strategy use, and their active learning attitudes. The pedagogy was featured with the small group scaffolding. Two intact English classes in a Taiwanese university were…

How Object, Situation and Personality Shape Human Attitude in Learning: An Activity Perspective and a Multilevel Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Jun

2009-01-01

Based on Activity Theory, this article examines attitude formation in human learning as shaped by the experiences of individual learners with various learning objects in particular learning contexts. It hypothesizes that a learner's object-related perceptions, personality traits and situational perceptions may have different relationships with the…

The Impact of Vocabulary Enhancement Activities on Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention among Male and Female EFL Learners in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharafi-Nejad, Maryam; Raftari, Shohreh; Bijami, Maryam; Khavari, Zahra; Ismail, Shaik Abdul Malik Mohamed; Eng, Lin Siew

2014-01-01

In general, incidental vocabulary acquisition is represented as the "picking up" of new vocabularies when students are engaged in a variety of reading, listening, speaking, or writing activities. Research has shown when learners read extensively incidental vocabulary acquisition happens. Many EFL students cannot be involved in reading…

Negative Evidence in Language Classroom Activities: A Study of Its Availability and Accessibility to Language Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pica, Teresa; Washburn, Gay N.

2002-01-01

This study identified and described the ways in which negative evidence was made available and accessible to learners during two widely practiced classroom activities. One was a teacher-led discussion that emphasized communication of subject matter content. The other was a teacher-led sentence construction exercise that focused on application of…

Turkish Foreign Language Learners' Roles and Outputs: Introducing an Innovation and Role-Playing in Second Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozbek, Cigdem; Comoglu, Irem; Baran, Bahar

2017-01-01

This study aims to design of the two activities "introducing an innovation" and "role playing" in Second Life (SL) and to evaluate qualitatively Turkish foreign language learner's roles and outputs before, while, and after the implementation of the activities. The study used community of inquiry model consisting of cognitive…

Language Teacher Candidates' Self-Assessment Process for Teaching to Young Learners in EFL Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genç Ilter, Binnur

2017-01-01

Teaching a foreign language to young learners have some differences from teaching adults. Young children have concentration problems and they tend to change their mood every ten minutes and need more creative activities than adults. Therefore, foreign language teachers have to choose interesting activities for them and foreign language teacher…

Identifying and Enhancing the Strengths of Gifted Learners, K-8: Easy-to-Use Activities and Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maccagnano, Ann Marie

2007-01-01

Educators can identify children's strengths early on and gain insight into each student's unique abilities by using the numerous ideas and informal assessments in this exciting guide. Gifted and talented specialist Ann Maccagnano offers K-8 teachers challenging activities and engaging lessons to develop and nurture gifted learners' talents.…

Active Learning for Discovery and Innovation in Criminology with Chinese Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Jessica C. M.; Wu, Joseph

2015-01-01

Whereas a great deal of literature based upon the context of Western societies has concluded criminology is an ideal discipline for active learning approach, it remains uncertain if this learning approach is applicable to Chinese learners in the discipline of criminology. This article describes and provides evidence of the benefits of using active…

Informal Learning Activities for Learners of English and for Learners of Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Marsenille, Anne

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the informal learning activities which French-speaking higher education students in Brussels engage in while learning English and Dutch. The informal learning of English was investigated in 2012, while the informal learning of Dutch was studied in 2015 and then compared to the informal…

Separating "Inquiry Questions" and "Techniques" to Help Learners Move between the How and the Why of Biology Practical Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Philip, Judith M. D.; Taber, Keith S.

2016-01-01

School science practical activities have been criticised for exposing learners to a series of phenomena disconnected from the conceptual frameworks needed to understand them. Such activities are successful in the "domain of observables" but not the "domain of ideas". Few resources exist for classroom teachers wishing to improve…

Pedagogical Values of Mobile-Assisted Task-Based Activities to Enhance Speaking Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohammadi, Mojtaba; Safdari, Nastaran

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of online mobile-assisted task-based activities on improving Iranian intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' speaking skills. To achieve the purpose of the study, 90 intermediate language learners were selected ranging between 13 to 16 years old and divided into three…

Cross-Language Activation in Children's Speech Production: Evidence from Second Language Learners, Bilinguals, and Trilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poarch, Gregory J.; van Hell, Janet G.

2012-01-01

In five experiments, we examined cross-language activation during speech production in various groups of bilinguals and trilinguals who differed in nonnative language proficiency, language learning background, and age. In Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 5, German 5- to 8-year-old second language learners of English, German-English bilinguals,…

Language-Related Computer Use: Focus on Young L2 English Learners in Sweden

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sundqvist, Pia; Sylvén, Liss Kerstin

2014-01-01

This paper presents findings from a study investigating young English language learners (YELLs) in Sweden in 4th grade (N = 76, aged 10-11). Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and a one-week language diary. The main purpose was to examine the learners' L2 English language-related activities outside of school in general, and their…

The Role of Private Speech in Cognitive Regulation of Learners: The Case of English as a Foreign Language Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarab, Mohamad Reza Anani; Gordani, Yahya

2015-01-01

Investigations into the use of private speech by adult English foreign language (EFL) learners in regulating their mental activities have been an interesting area of research with a sociocultural framework. Following this line of research, 30 advanced adult EFL learners were selected via the administration of Oxford quick placement test and took a…

A Case Study of Peer Review Practices of Four Adolescent English Language Learners in Face-to-Face and Online Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vorobel, Oksana

2013-01-01

Peer review is a complex collaborative activity, which may engage English language learners in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and carry many potential benefits for their language learning (Hu, 2005). While many research studies focused on peer review practices of adult language learners in academic settings in the USA or abroad in…

"Can We Do That Again?" Engaging Learners and Developing beyond the "Wow" Factor in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Astall, Chris; Bruce, Warren

2010-01-01

Adding Mentos to an open bottle of Diet Coke can produce a fountain of liquid and froth extending several metres high. This activity can engage a wide audience of learners in a relevant and meaningful way, provide a model for creative science teaching, and help to develop learners' attitudes towards school science as a subject. In this paper, the…

Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

2018-01-01

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1…

Bedside Teaching in Undergraduate Medical Education: Issues, Strategies, and New Models for Better Preparation of New Generation Doctors

PubMed Central

Salam, Abdus; Siraj, Harlina Halizah; Mohamad, Nabishah; Das, Srijit; Rabeya, Yousuf

2011-01-01

Bedside teaching is a vital component of medical education. It is applicable to any situation where teaching is imparted in the presence of patients. In teaching in the patients’ presence, learners have the opportunities to use all of their senses and learn the humanistic aspect of medicine such as role modeling, which is vital but difficult to communicate in words. Unfortunately, bedside teaching has been on the decline. To investigate the reasons for the decline in bedside teaching, its importance and its revival, a review of literature was carried out using PubMed and other data bases. The review revealed that the major concerns of bedside teaching were time constraint, false preceptors’ concern about patients’ comfort, short stay of patients in hospitals, learner distraction by technology, lack of experience and unrealistic faculty expectation. Whatsoever the reasons, bedside teaching cannot be replaced with anything else. There are newer approaches of effective bedside teaching, and the core focus of all such approaches is educational process. A bedside teacher must learn how to involve patients and learners in the educational processes. Moreover, bedside teaching is the process through which learners acquire the skills of communication by asking patients’ permission, establishing ground rules, setting time limit, introducing the team, diagnosing learner, diagnosing patient, conducting focused teaching, using simple language, asking patient if there is any question, closing with encouraging thanks, and giving feedback privately. It is most important to ensure a comfortable environment for all participants, the learner, the patient and the bedside teacher. Ongoing faculty development programs on educational processes and realistic faculty expectations may overcome the problems. PMID:23365470

Bedside teaching in undergraduate medical education: issues, strategies, and new models for better preparation of new generation doctors.

PubMed

Salam, Abdus; Siraj, Harlina Halizah; Mohamad, Nabishah; Das, Srijit; Rabeya, Yousuf

2011-03-01

Bedside teaching is a vital component of medical education. It is applicable to any situation where teaching is imparted in the presence of patients. In teaching in the patients' presence, learners have the opportunities to use all of their senses and learn the humanistic aspect of medicine such as role modeling, which is vital but difficult to communicate in words. Unfortunately, bedside teaching has been on the decline. To investigate the reasons for the decline in bedside teaching, its importance and its revival, a review of literature was carried out using PubMed and other data bases. The review revealed that the major concerns of bedside teaching were time constraint, false preceptors' concern about patients' comfort, short stay of patients in hospitals, learner distraction by technology, lack of experience and unrealistic faculty expectation. Whatsoever the reasons, bedside teaching cannot be replaced with anything else. There are newer approaches of effective bedside teaching, and the core focus of all such approaches is educational process. A bedside teacher must learn how to involve patients and learners in the educational processes. Moreover, bedside teaching is the process through which learners acquire the skills of communication by asking patients' permission, establishing ground rules, setting time limit, introducing the team, diagnosing learner, diagnosing patient, conducting focused teaching, using simple language, asking patient if there is any question, closing with encouraging thanks, and giving feedback privately. It is most important to ensure a comfortable environment for all participants, the learner, the patient and the bedside teacher. Ongoing faculty development programs on educational processes and realistic faculty expectations may overcome the problems.

Focus of Attention Affects Performance of Motor Skills in Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duke, Robert A.; Cash, Carla Davis; Allen, Sarah E.

2011-01-01

To test the extent to which learners performing a simple keyboard passage would be affected by directing their focus of attention to different aspects of their movements, 16 music majors performed a brief keyboard passage under each of four focus conditions arranged in a counterbalanced design--a total of 64 experimental sessions. As they…

The Bear Is Still Singing: Creating Lyrics with Social Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Thomas

2008-01-01

In the author's article in the 1988 premiere issue of "Social Studies and the Young Learner," he suggested that chain songs and rounds, simple folk and summer camp standards, could be easily transformed with lyrics (written by the teacher or students) that contained useful, purposeful social studies content. He argued then, and still does, that…

Research Says / Tap ELLs' Strengths to Spur Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Bryan; Hein, Heather

2016-01-01

On the surface, learning a second language may seem to be a simple one- to two-year undertaking. Research shows, however, that it's a far more complex endeavor. This article considers the depth of learning required to become academically proficient in a second language. For instance, language learners learn the basics of reading in a second…

TechWriter: An Evolving System for Writing Assistance for Advanced Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Napolitano, Diane M.; Stent, Amanda

2009-01-01

Writing assistance systems, from simple spelling checkers to more complex grammar and readability analyzers, can be helpful aids to nonnative writers of English. However, many writing assistance systems have two disadvantages. First, they are not designed to encourage skills learning and independence in their users; instead, users may begin to use…

The CEFR and the Dynamics of Second Language Learning: Trends and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowie, Wander

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the pedagogical implications of Dynamic Systems Theory approaches to second language development. The main question addressed is whether it is possible to describe a learner's level of proficiency with a simple and unambiguous label, and if so, whether the CEFR can provide such a label. It is argued that considering the…

Hands-On versus Teacher-Centred Experiments in Soil Ecology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Randler, Christoph; Hulde, Madeleine

2007-01-01

This study focused on differences between teacher-centred and learner-centred experiments in soil ecology. After a pilot study, we selected three experiments simple enough to be carried out by pupils even with little experience in self-determined learning and hands-on practice. The sample comprised 123 fifth and sixth graders from a middle school…

Early Literacy Skills and English Language Learners: An Analysis of Students in a Title I School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostayan, Jennifer R.

2016-01-01

This article examined student literacy assessments in light of students' levels of English language proficiency. The study supported the hypotheses that a student's level of language proficiency positively predicted their DIBELS Composite score at the beginning, middle, and end of kindergarten by utilizing a simple linear regression. An ANOVA…

Seven Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Objectives. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvir, Claire Gelinas

This document gives examples of seven steps a classroom teacher can take to improve both instructional and learning objectives. This improvement is to be measured by increased student learning. The seven steps are as follows: a) write a simple behavioral objective, b) edit, c) revise objective to make it learner centered, d) clarify, e) evaluate…

The Effects of Differential Learning and Traditional Learning Trainings on Technical Development of Football Players

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozkurt, Sinan

2018-01-01

There are several different methods of learning motor skills, like traditional (linear) and differential (nonlinear) learning training. The traditional motor learning approach proposes that learners improve a skill just by repeating it. According to the teaching principles, exercises are selected along continua from easy to hard and from simple to…

Mastering Overdetection and Underdetection in Learner-Answer Processing: Simple Techniques for Analysis and Diagnosis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blanchard, Alexia; Kraif, Olivier; Ponton, Claude

2009-01-01

This paper presents a "didactic triangulation" strategy to cope with the problem of reliability of NLP applications for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) systems. It is based on the implementation of basic but well mastered NLP techniques and puts the emphasis on an adapted gearing between computable linguistic clues and didactic features…

When big brother is watching: goal orientation shapes reactions to electronic monitoring during online training.

PubMed

Watson, Aaron M; Foster Thompson, Lori; Rudolph, Jane V; Whelan, Thomas J; Behrend, Tara S; Gissel, Amanda L

2013-07-01

Web-based training is frequently used by organizations as a convenient and low-cost way to teach employees new knowledge and skills. As web-based training is typically unproctored, employees may be held accountable to the organization by computer software that monitors their behaviors. The current study examines how the introduction of electronic performance monitoring may provoke negative emotional reactions and decrease learning among certain types of e-learners. Through motivated action theory and trait activation theory, we examine the role of performance goal orientation when e-learners are exposed to asynchronous and synchronous monitoring. We show that some e-learners are more susceptible than others to evaluation apprehension when they perceive their activities are being monitored electronically. Specifically, e-learners higher in avoid performance goal orientation exhibited increased evaluation apprehension if they believed asynchronous monitoring was present, and they showed decreased skill attainment as a result. E-learners higher on prove performance goal orientation showed greater evaluation apprehension if they believed real-time monitoring was occurring, resulting in decreased skill attainment. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Can Learning a Foreign Language Foster Analytic Thinking?-Evidence from Chinese EFL Learners' Writings.

PubMed

Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui; Liu, Haitao

2016-01-01

Language is not only the representation of thinking, but also shapes thinking. Studies on bilinguals suggest that a foreign language plays an important and unconscious role in thinking. In this study, a software-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2007-was used to investigate whether the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) can foster Chinese high school students' English analytic thinking (EAT) through the analysis of their English writings with our self-built corpus. It was found that: (1) learning English can foster Chinese learners' EAT. Chinese EFL learners' ability of making distinctions, degree of cognitive complexity and degree of thinking activeness have all improved along with the increase of their English proficiency and their age; (2) there exist differences in Chinese EFL learners' EAT and that of English native speakers, i. e. English native speakers are better in the ability of making distinctions and degree of thinking activeness. These findings suggest that the best EFL learners in high schools have gained native-like analytic thinking through six years' English learning and are able to switch their cognitive styles as needed.

Attending to the Grammatical Errors of Students Using Constructive Teaching and Learning Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wornyo, Albert Agbesi

2016-01-01

This study was a classroom-based action research. In this study, constructive teaching and learning activities were used to help learners improve on their grammar and usage with a focus on how to help them internalize subject verb agreement rules. The purpose of the research was to assist learners to improve upon their performance in grammar and…

Team Regulation, Regulation of Social Activities or Co-Regulation: Different Labels for Effective Regulation of Learning in CSCL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saab, Nadira

2012-01-01

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an approach to learning in which learners can actively and collaboratively construct knowledge by means of interaction and joint problem solving. Regulation of learning is especially important in the domain of CSCL. Next to the regulation of task performance, the interaction between learners who…

Construction of a Learning Environment Supporting Learners' Reflection: A Case of Information Seeking on the Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Hitomi; Miwa, Kazuhisa

2007-01-01

In this study, we design a learning environment that supports reflective activities for information seeking on the Web and evaluate its educational effects. The features of this design are: (1) to visualize the learners' search processes as described, based on a cognitive schema, (2) to support two types of reflective activities, such as…

Beliefs and Out-of-Class Language Learning of Chinese-Speaking ESL Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Manfred Man-fat

2012-01-01

Background: There has been a lack of research on exploring how beliefs about language learning (BALLs) and out-of-class language-learning activities are related. BALLs and out-of-class language-learning activities play an important role in influencing the learning behaviours of learners and learning outcomes. Findings of this study provide useful…

Activity Theory in Spanish Mixed Classrooms: Exploring Corrective Feedback as an Artifact

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valentín-Rivera, Laura

2016-01-01

This study draws upon activity theory to better understand the implications of corrective feedback (CF) as an artifact on (1) the coconstruction of knowledge and (2) the action-oriented decisions of 10 mixed pairs comprising a foreign language learner (FLL) and a heritage language learner (HLL) of Spanish. To this end, the dyads were divided into…

Exploring the Impact of Role-Playing on Peer Feedback in an Online Case-Based Learning Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ching, Yu-Hui

2014-01-01

This study explored the impact of role-playing on the quality of peer feedback and learners' perception of this strategy in a case-based learning activity with VoiceThread in an online course. The findings revealed potential positive impact of role-playing on learners' generation of constructive feedback as role-playing was associated with higher…

When Are Powerful Learning Environments Effective? The Role of Learner Activities and of Students' Conceptions of Educational Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gerjets, Peter H.; Hesse, Friedrich W.

2004-01-01

The goal of this chapter is to outline a theoretical and empirical perspective on how learners' conceptions of educational technology might influence their learning activities and thereby determine the power of computer-based learning environments. Starting with an introduction to the concept of powerful learning environments we outline how recent…

Fashion Design: Designing a Learner-Active, Multi-Level High School Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Diane

2009-01-01

A high school fashion design teacher has much in common with the ringmaster of a three-ring circus. The challenges of teaching a hands-on course are to facilitate the entire class and to meet the needs of individual students. When teaching family and consumer sciences, the goal is to have a learner-active classroom. Revamping the high school's…

Aspects of the Reading Motivation and Reading Activity of Namibian Primary School Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirchner, Emmarentia; Mostert, Maria Louise

2017-01-01

This paper reports on the reading motivation and reading activity of 402, urban, Namibian learners in 6 schools in the central region of Namibia. From the fourth grade these Grade 7 learners received their instruction through the medium of English, and offered English as Second Language in addition to another Namibian language. They were enrolled…

The Formation of Learners' Motivation to Study Physics in Terms of Sustainable Development of Education in Ukraine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korsun, Igor

2017-01-01

This study is aimed at creating a general technique for the formation of learners' interest in physics in the context of sustainable development of education. The active means of training and active learning methods are the components of this technique. The sequence of interest formation for physics in the context of sustainable development of…

"Disadvantaged Learners": Who Are We Targeting? Understanding the Targeting of Widening Participation Activity in the United Kingdom Using Geo-Demographic Data from Southwest England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Neil; Hatt, Sue

2010-01-01

This paper analyses the definition of the appropriate target group for widening participation activities advanced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in their "Targeting Disadvantaged Learners" advice to Aimhigher and higher education providers. This definition includes components of area deprivation and higher education…

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Joshua T.; Newman, Sharlene D.

2017-01-01

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel…

QR Codes in Education and Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durak, Gurhan; Ozkeskin, E. Emre; Ataizi, Murat

2016-01-01

Technological advances brought applications of innovations to education. Conventional education increasingly flourishes with new technologies accompanied by more learner active environments. In this continuum, there are learners preferring self-learning. Traditional learning materials yield attractive, motivating and technologically enhanced…

1-,2-,3-e - Engaging All Exceptional Students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Runyon, C. R.; Hall, C.; Baber, M.

2013-12-01

There are more than 50 million Americans with disabilities, approximately half of whom are students in a mainstreamed classroom. The National Association for Gifted Children estimates that approximately 3 million of those, 6% of the student population, are academically gifted, and 150,000 - 300,000 students of those are twice or triple exceptional (2e and 3e, respectively). The 2e and 3e refers to intellectually gifted children who also have some form(s) of disability. Unfortunately most schools in the US identify children by their giftedness or by their disability, but rarely by both. An apparent trend with 2e children, particularly when autism is paired with gifted, is that students identify with their disability instead of their strengths. 2e students have shown a propensity for interests in the science and technology fields. Few specialized programs and/or resources in STEM exist to engage and involve these exceptional students and fewer still is the number of faculty and staff trained to work with the twice and triple exceptionalities. Palmetto Scholars Academy (PSA), Charleston, SC a school for gifted and talented, provides a differentiated program to meet the educational needs of gifted learners, while also addressing the students' social/emotional needs. The Brown/MIT NASA Lunar Science Institute, in conjunction with the NASA South Carolina Space Grant Consortium, is working directly with educators from the PSA to identify what kinds of materials they need and what mediums work best for the different student (cap)abilities. This partnership will provide a means of 'consciousness raising' for teachers to help students develop their strengths and educators will gain a new understanding of 2e and 3e that will transfer into better instruction. One technique being implemented is the use of STEM-oriented engineering and technology design challenges and problem solving. These tasks allow students to use a variety of integrative and multi-disciplinary skills for solving open-ended problems either by themselves or in small groups. Not only do such activities simulate real-world scenarios but they also provide opportunities for independent learning. Further, using design-based approaches for instruction enhances students' academic abilities, opens their minds to innovative and transformative ideas, and increases their self-esteem and confidence in STEM. To ensure that our results reach a broader audience we are sharing lessons learned from our collaborative efforts with NASA product developers and personnel. In addition to making modifications and suggestions for adaptations, many simple recommendations that can help ALL learners participate more readily in classroom STEM activities and discussions include: 1) Use of simple, sans-serif fonts and high contrast presentation media (e.g., white text on black is most effective); 2) Repetition and use of multiple presentation modes; 3) Actively involving the learner, and 4) Keeping the audience, the ultimate user, in mind at all times when developing and sharing content.

More than a "Basic Skill": Breaking down the Complexities of Summarizing for ABE/ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ouellette-Schramm, Jennifer

2015-01-01

This article describes the complex cognitive and linguistic challenges of summarizing expository text at vocabulary, syntactic, and rhetorical levels. It then outlines activities to help ABE/ESL learners develop corresponding skills.

MAI (Multi-Dimensional Activity Based Integrated Approach): A Strategy for Cognitive Development of the Learners at the Elementary Stage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basantia, Tapan Kumar; Panda, B. N.; Sahoo, Dukhabandhu

2012-01-01

Cognitive development of the learners is the prime task of each and every stage of our school education and its importance especially in elementary state is quite worth mentioning. Present study investigated the effectiveness of a new and innovative strategy (i.e., MAI (multi-dimensional activity based integrated approach)) for the development of…

Exploring Work-Based Foundation Skills in the ABLE Classroom. Instructional Activities and Resources for the Adult Learner [and] Supplemental Handouts for Modules. Version 1.2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carman, Priscilla; Van Horn, Barbara; Hamilton, KayLynn; Williams, Mary Kay

This guide contains activities and resources to help adult learners develop the work-based foundation skills and knowledge areas included on the Foundation Skills Framework wheel (Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy 2000). Its four sections (basic employability skills, basic workplace knowledge, basic workplace skills, and lifelong learning…

The Development and Evaluation of an Achievement Test for Measuring the Efficacy of Task-Based Writing Activities to Enhance Iranian EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nejad, Ferdows Mohsen; Khosravian, Fereshteh

2014-01-01

The present study examined the reliability of an achievement test to measure the efficacy of task-based writing activities to improve Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension at the intermediate level in a private language institute in Ilam, Iran, namely Alefba language institute. To achieve the goal, the techniques for evaluating reliability…

From Passive to Active Learners: The "Lived Experience" of Nurses in a Specialist Nephrology Nursing Education Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bridger, Jane

2007-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to explore the lived experience of learning for a group of staff nurses in the Middle East, who undertook a post-registration nursing education programme in the speciality of nephrology nursing (the NNP) between 2001 and 2002. The broad-based curriculum seeks to develop the staff nurses into active learners, able to…

A Learner-led, Discussion-based Elective on Emerging Infectious Disease

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Objective. To implement a learner-led, discussion-based course aimed at exposing second-year pharmacy learners to the study of emerging infectious diseases from a global health perspective and to assess the role and importance of pharmacists in the management of disease outbreaks. Design. Learners examined literature pertinent to an emerging infectious disease in a 3-credit, discussion-based course and participated in peer discussion led by a designated learner. Instructional materials included journal articles, audio-visual presentations, documentaries, book chapters, movies, newspaper/magazine articles, and other materials. Learning outcomes were measured based on the ability of learners to perform critical thinking and analysis, communicate with their peers, and participate in class discussions. Assessment. The course was offered to 2 consecutive cohorts consisting of 14 and 16 learners, respectively. Overall, every learner in the first cohort achieved a final grade of A for the course. In the second cohort, the overall grade distribution consisted of grades of A, B, and C for the course. Learner evaluations indicated that the active-learning, discussion-based environment significantly enhanced interest in the topic and overall performance in the course. Conclusion. The elective course on emerging infectious diseases provided in-depth exposure to disease topics normally not encountered in the pharmacy curriculum. Learners found the material and format valuable, and the course enhanced their appreciation of infectious diseases, research methodology, critical thinking and analysis, and their roles as pharmacists. PMID:26430268

A Learner-led, Discussion-based Elective on Emerging Infectious Disease.

PubMed

Mathias, Clinton

2015-08-25

Objective. To implement a learner-led, discussion-based course aimed at exposing second-year pharmacy learners to the study of emerging infectious diseases from a global health perspective and to assess the role and importance of pharmacists in the management of disease outbreaks. Design. Learners examined literature pertinent to an emerging infectious disease in a 3-credit, discussion-based course and participated in peer discussion led by a designated learner. Instructional materials included journal articles, audio-visual presentations, documentaries, book chapters, movies, newspaper/magazine articles, and other materials. Learning outcomes were measured based on the ability of learners to perform critical thinking and analysis, communicate with their peers, and participate in class discussions. Assessment. The course was offered to 2 consecutive cohorts consisting of 14 and 16 learners, respectively. Overall, every learner in the first cohort achieved a final grade of A for the course. In the second cohort, the overall grade distribution consisted of grades of A, B, and C for the course. Learner evaluations indicated that the active-learning, discussion-based environment significantly enhanced interest in the topic and overall performance in the course. Conclusion. The elective course on emerging infectious diseases provided in-depth exposure to disease topics normally not encountered in the pharmacy curriculum. Learners found the material and format valuable, and the course enhanced their appreciation of infectious diseases, research methodology, critical thinking and analysis, and their roles as pharmacists.

Information-theoretic approach to interactive learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Still, S.

2009-01-01

The principles of statistical mechanics and information theory play an important role in learning and have inspired both theory and the design of numerous machine learning algorithms. The new aspect in this paper is a focus on integrating feedback from the learner. A quantitative approach to interactive learning and adaptive behavior is proposed, integrating model- and decision-making into one theoretical framework. This paper follows simple principles by requiring that the observer's world model and action policy should result in maximal predictive power at minimal complexity. Classes of optimal action policies and of optimal models are derived from an objective function that reflects this trade-off between prediction and complexity. The resulting optimal models then summarize, at different levels of abstraction, the process's causal organization in the presence of the learner's actions. A fundamental consequence of the proposed principle is that the learner's optimal action policies balance exploration and control as an emerging property. Interestingly, the explorative component is present in the absence of policy randomness, i.e. in the optimal deterministic behavior. This is a direct result of requiring maximal predictive power in the presence of feedback.

The Effect of Processing Instruction and Dictogloss Tasks on Acquisition of the English Passive Voice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qin, Jingjing

2008-01-01

This study was intended to compare processing instruction (VanPatten, 1993, 1996, 2000), an input-based focus on form technique, to dictogloss tasks, an output-oriented focus-on-form type of instruction to assess their effects in helping beginning-EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners acquire the simple English passive voice. Two intact…

Computer-Assisted Instruction: "JClic" as a New Pedagogical Tool for EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stelea, Sorina; Girón-García, Carolina

2017-01-01

The present study has a double purpose: firstly, to evaluate the effect of JClic on students' performance in the use of Simple Present Perfect in English and secondly, to establish the impact of the use of JClic on students' engagement and motivation. In other words, this research seeks to find out if student engagement and motivation in the…

What's so Simple about Simplified Texts? A Computational and Psycholinguistic Investigation of Text Comprehension and Text Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott A.; Yang, Hae Sung; McNamara, Danielle S.

2014-01-01

This study uses a moving windows self-paced reading task to assess both text comprehension and processing time of authentic texts and these same texts simplified to beginning and intermediate levels. Forty-eight second language learners each read 9 texts (3 different authentic, beginning, and intermediate level texts). Repeated measures ANOVAs…

The Impact of Designing and Evaluating Molecular Animations on How Well Middle School Students Understand the Particulate Nature of Matter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Hsin-Yi; Quintana, Chris; Krajcik, Joseph S.

2010-01-01

In this study, we investigated whether the understanding of the particulate nature of matter by students was improved by allowing them to design and evaluate molecular animations of chemical phenomena. We developed Chemation, a learner-centered animation tool, to allow seventh-grade students to construct flipbook-like simple animations to show…

To Ask a Question, One Must Know Enough to Know What Is Not Known. Report No. 7802.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miyake, Naomi; Norman, Donald A.

This study involved the manipulation of question-asking in a learning task. The hypothesis that learners should ask the most questions when their knowledge was well-matched to the level of presentation was tested, using two levels of background knowledge and two levels of difficulty of material to be learned. The more simple instructional…

Making Information Systems Less Scrugged: Reflecting on the Processes of Change in Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houghton, Luke; Ruth, Alison

2010-01-01

Deep and shallow learner approaches are useful for different purposes. Shallow learning can be good where fact memorization is appropriate, learning how to swim or play the guitar for example. Deep learning is much more appropriate when the learning material present involves going beyond simple facts and into what lies below the surface. When…

Learning Science Using AR Book: A Preliminary Study on Visual Needs of Deaf Learners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Megat Mohd. Zainuddin, Norziha; Badioze Zaman, Halimah; Ahmad, Azlina

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that is projected to have more significant role in teaching and learning, particularly in visualising abstract concepts in the learning process. AR is a technology is based on visually oriented technique. Thus, it is suitable for deaf learners since they are generally classified as visual learners. Realising the importance of visual learning style for deaf learners in learning Science, this paper reports on a preliminary study of on an ongoing research on problems faced by deaf learners in learning the topic on Microorganisms. Being visual learners, they have problems with current text books that are more text-based that graphic based. In this preliminary study, a qualitative approach using the ethnographic observational technique was used so that interaction with three deaf learners who are participants throughout this study (they are also involved actively in the design and development of the AR Book). An interview with their teacher and doctor were also conducted to identify their learning and medical problems respectively. Preliminary findings have confirmed the need to design and develop a special Augmented Reality Book called AR-Science for Deaf Learners (AR-SiD).

Tsikavytys' neznanym: uchnivs'kyi zoshyt (Fascination with the Unknown: Student Activity Book) [and] Tsikavytys' neznanym: vidpovidi do uchnivs'koho zoshyta (Fascination with the Unknown: Answer Key to Student Activity Book). Collage 2: A Ukrainian Language Development Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boruszczak, Bohdan, Comp.; Wozniak, Odarka, Comp.

One of four intermediate- to advanced-level activity books in a series, this student workbook offers a selection of exercises, vocabulary builders, dialogs, and writing exercises for language skill development. It is intended for use in the instruction of native speakers, heritage language learners, or second language learners of Ukrainian. Also…

Preservice elementary teachers' development of PCK-readiness about learners' science ideas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smithey, Julie Faye

Preservice elementary teachers face many daunting challenges as they learn to teach science. Teacher educators try to design methods courses that help them meet these challenges and prepare them for the experiences they will have as student teachers and new teachers. Because they often do not spend much time with students, it is a general assumption that preservice teachers are unable to develop pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) with respect to their learners. Rather than focus on what they are unable to do, however, this dissertation explores how a methods course might foster consideration of learners' science ideas, an important component of PCK. Perhaps preservice teachers can learn to develop PCK-readiness, thus putting them in a good position to develop rich usable PCK once they have more experience in the classroom. This study follows a class of preservice teachers through an elementary science methods course. It describes the trajectories of eight focus preservice teachers' thinking about their learners. It also explores how the entire class made sense of a set of activities designed to foster consideration of learners' ideas. Results indicate that with scaffolds, preservice teachers are able to think in complex ways about their learners' ideas, including considering how to use those ideas in instruction. The trajectories of the preservice teachers varied but generally showed growth in thinking about learners' ideas, although some were focused on or influenced by particular aspects while others made more consistent growth in several areas. Generally, the course activities supported thinking about how to deal with learners' ideas but not the characteristics of those ideas. This study contributes to the field by providing a description of how a range of preservice teachers engaged with the activities in the methods course. In addition, it describes the kind of influence that a methods course might have on preservice teachers' development of a crucial aspect of learning to teach. Finally, it explores how thinking about preservice teacher learning in terms of PCK-readiness gives new insight into what preservice teachers are capable of and how teacher education might best prepare them for successful careers as science teachers.

Giving feedback in medical teaching: a case of lung function laboratory/spirometry.

PubMed

Meo, Sultan Ayoub

2013-01-01

Feedback in medical teaching is an important part of medical education, it encourages and enhances the learners' knowledge, skills and professional performance at various stages of their schooling. A constructive feedback enhances the awareness of strength and areas for improvement. An adequate, meaningful and fruitful feedback needs motivation, emphasis, objectivity, expertise, and active participation in the session. Before giving feedback, the instructor should be well prepared and must have practice on the task. The instructor should utilize all means such as good oral presentation, eye contact, visual cues, utilize body language to actively involve the learners in a session, all these activities enhance the knowledge, skill and attitude of the learners. The aim of this commentary is to highlight the basic issues in giving an appropriate feedback in medical teaching with special emphasis on a lung function laboratory / Spirometry.

CosmoQuest: Creative Engagement & Citizen Science Ignite Authentic Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cobb, W. H.; Noel-Storr, J.; Tweed, A.; Asplund, S.; Aiello, M. P.; Lebofsky, L. A.; Chilton, H.; Gay, P.

2016-12-01

The CosmoQuest Virtual Research Facility offers in-depth experiences to diverse audiences nationally and internationally through pioneering citizen science. An endeavor between universities, research institutes, and NASA centers, CosmoQuest brings together scientists, educators, researchers, programmers—and individuals of all ages—to explore and make sense of our solar system and beyond. CosmoQuest creates pathways for engaging diverse audiences in authentic science, encouraging scientists to engage with learners, and learners to engage with scientists. Here is a sequence of activities developed by CosmoQuest, leveraging a NASA Discovery and New Frontiers Programs activity developed for the general STEAM community, that activates STEM learning. The Spark: Igniting Curiosity Art and the Cosmic Connection uses the elements of art—shape, line, color, texture, value—to hone observation skills and inspire questions. Learners explore NASA image data from celestial bodies in our solar system—planets, asteroids, moons. They investigate their geology, analyzing features and engaging in scientific discourse rising from evidence while creating a beautiful piece of art. The Fuel: Making Connections Crater Comparisons explore authentic NASA image data sets, engrossing learners at a deeper level. With skills learned in Art and the Cosmic Connection, learners analyze specific image sets with the feedback of mission team members. The Burn: Evolving Community Become a Solar System Mapper. Investigate and analyze NASA mission image data of Mars, Mercury, the Moon and Vesta through CosmoQuest's citizen science projects. Learners make real-world connections while contributing to NASA science. Scaffolded by an educational framework that inspires 21st century learners, CosmoQuest engages people in analyzing and interpreting real NASA data, inspiring questions, defining problems, and realizing their potential to contribute to genuine scientific results. Through social channels, CosmoQuest empowers and expands its community, including science and education-focused hangouts, virtual star parties, and diverse social media. CosmoQuest offers a hub for excellent resources throughout NASA and the larger astronomy community and fosters the conversations they inspire.

Pragmatics: Teaching Speech Acts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tatsuki, Donna H., Ed.; Houck, Noel R., Ed.

2010-01-01

Language teachers have long been aware of the devastating effect of learners' grammatically correct, yet situationally inappropriate spoken or written communication. This volume addresses how to raise learner awareness of pragmatic gaffs through research-based, field-tested activities such as composing e-mail requests, giving advice, making…

An Activity-Theoretic Study of Agency and Identity in the Study Abroad Experiences of a Lesbian Nontraditional Learner of Korean

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Lucien

2016-01-01

This is an activity-theoretic study of agency and identity in the study abroad experiences of a Korean learner named Julie-a 50-year-old lesbian, feminist, and non-traditional student from the USA. During 6-weeks in Seoul, Julie struggled to gain participation and to define her identity in a setting that was hostile towards homosexuality. These…

The Application of Video Clips with Small Group and Individual Activities to Improve Young Learners' Speaking Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muslem, Asnawi; Mustafa, Faisal; Usman, Bustami; Rahman, Aulia

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether the application of video clips with small groups or with individual teaching-learning activities improved the speaking skills of young EFL learners the most; accordingly a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test design was done. The instrument used in this study was a test in the form of an oral test or…

The Effects of Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Activities on the Development of Pragmatic Awareness and Use of Hearsay Evidential Markers for Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narita, Ritsuko

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the effectiveness of pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) activities in the L2 pragmatic acquisition of hearsay evidential markers by learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). PCR is essentially an inductive approach to facilitating awareness of how language forms are used appropriately in a given context.…

Design and Development of the Learning Activities Questionnaire

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-08-01

attention has been given to cognitive components of the study process. For example, Laycock and Russell (1941) found that among the 35 most frequently...suitable place to work. Very little attention centered upon the cognitive activities of the learner himself, with the exception of advice concerning the...learners in general most frequently apply, the 1,658 responses were divided into the five strategy categories. Rote strategies were reported most

Effects of an Online Learning Community on Active and Reflective Learners' Learning Performance and Attitudes in a Face-to-Face Undergraduate Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhan, Zehui; Xu, Fuyin; Ye, Huiwen

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an Online Learning Community (OLC) on active and reflective learners' learning performance and attitude in a face-to-face undergraduate digital design course. 814 freshmen in an introductory digital design course were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: one offered students an OLC,…

Interrelations in the Development of Primary School Learners' Creative Imagination and Creative Activity When Depicting a Portrait in Visual Art Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Šlahova, Aleksandra; Volonte, Ilze; Cacka, Maris

2017-01-01

Creative imagination is a psychic process of creating a new original image, idea or art work based on the acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities as well as on the experience of creative activity. The best of all primary school learners' creative imagination develops at the lessons of visual art, aimed at teaching them to understand what is…

The Synthesis Approach to Analysing Educational Design Dataset: Application of Three Scaffolds to a Learning by Design Task for Postgraduate Education Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Kate; Carvalho, Lucila; Aditomo, Anindito; Dimitriadis, Yannis; Dyke, Gregory; Evans, Michael A.; Khosronejad, Maryam; Martinez-Maldonado, Roberto; Reimann, Peter; Wardak, Dewa

2015-01-01

The aims of the Synthesis and Scaffolding Project were to understand: the role of specific scaffolds in relation to the activity of learners, and the activity of learners during a collaborative design task from multiple perspectives, through the collection and analysis of multiple streams of data and the adoption of a synthesis approach to the…

The importance of training strategy adaptation: a learner-oriented approach for improving older adults' memory and transfer.

PubMed

Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Dunlosky, John; Vecchi, Tomaso; Hertzog, Christopher

2013-09-01

We investigated the benefits of strategy-adaptation training for promoting transfer effects. This learner-oriented approach--which directly encourages the learner to generalize strategic behavior to new tasks--helps older adults appraise new tasks and adapt trained strategies to them. In Experiment 1, older adults in a strategy-adaptation training group used 2 strategies (imagery and sentence generation) while practicing 2 tasks (list and associative learning); they were then instructed on how to do a simple task analysis to help them adapt the trained strategies for 2 different unpracticed tasks (place learning and text learning) that were discussed during training. Two additional criterion tasks (name-face associative learning and grocery-list learning) were never mentioned during training. Two other groups were included: A strategy training group (who received strategy training and transfer instructions but not strategy-adaptation training) and a waiting-list control group. Both training procedures enhanced older adults' performance on the trained tasks and those tasks that were discussed during training, but transfer was greatest after strategy-adaptation training. Experiment 2 found that strategy-adaptation training conducted via a manual that older adults used at home also promoted transfer. These findings demonstrate the importance of adopting a learner-oriented approach to promote transfer of strategy training. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Visuospatial referents facilitate the learning and transfer of mathematical operations: extending the role of the angular gyrus.

PubMed

Pyke, Aryn; Betts, Shawn; Fincham, Jon M; Anderson, John R

2015-03-01

Different external representations for learning and solving mathematical operations may affect learning and transfer. To explore the effects of learning representations, learners were each introduced to two new operations (b↑n and b↓n) via either formulas or graphical representations. Both groups became adept at solving regular (trained) problems. During transfer, no external formulas or graphs were present; however, graph learners' knowledge could allow them to mentally associate problem expressions with visuospatial referents. The angular gyrus (AG) has recently been hypothesized to map problems to mental referents (e.g., symbolic answers; Grabner, Ansari, Koschutnig, Reishofer, & Ebner Human Brain Mapping, 34, 1013-1024, 2013), and we sought to test this hypothesis for visuospatial referents. To determine whether the AG and other math (horizontal intraparietal sulcus) and visuospatial (fusiform and posterior superior parietal lobule [PSPL]) regions were implicated in processing visuospatial mental referents, we included two types of transfer problems, computational and relational, which differed in referential load (one graph vs. two). During solving, the activations in AG, PSPL, and fusiform reflected the referential load manipulation among graph but not formula learners. Furthermore, the AG was more active among graph learners overall, which is consistent with its hypothesized referential role. Behavioral performance was comparable across the groups on computational transfer problems, which could be solved in a way that incorporated learners' respective procedures for regular problems. However, graph learners were more successful on relational transfer problems, which assessed their understanding of the relations between pairs of similar problems within and across operations. On such problems, their behavioral performance correlated with activation in the AG, fusiform, and a relational processing region (BA 10).

Classroom Preschool Science Learning: The Learner, Instructional Tools, and Peer-Learning Assignments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reuter, Jamie M.

The recent decades have seen an increased focus on improving early science education. Goals include helping young children learn about pertinent concepts in science, and fostering early scientific reasoning and inquiry skills (e.g., NRC 2007, 2012, 2015). However, there is still much to learn about what constitutes appropriate frameworks that blend science education with developmentally appropriate learning environments. An important goal for the construction of early science is a better understanding of appropriate learning experiences and expectations for preschool children. This dissertation examines some of these concerns by focusing on three dimensions of science learning in the preschool classroom: (1) the learner; (2) instructional tools and pedagogy; and (3) the social context of learning with peers. In terms of the learner, the dissertation examines some dimensions of preschool children's scientific reasoning skills in the context of potentially relevant, developing general reasoning abilities. As young children undergo rapid cognitive changes during the preschool years, it is important to explore how these may influence scientific thinking. Two features of cognitive functioning have been carefully studied: (1) the demonstration of an epistemic awareness through an emerging theory of mind, and (2) the rapid improvement in executive functioning capacity. Both continue to develop through childhood and adolescence, but changes in early childhood are especially striking and have been neglected as regards their potential role in scientific thinking. The question is whether such skills relate to young children's capacity for scientific thinking. Another goal was to determine whether simple physics diagrams serve as effective instructional tools in supporting preschool children's scientific thinking. Specifically, in activities involving predicting and checking in scientific contexts, the question is whether such diagrams facilitate children's ability to accurately recall initial predictions, as well as discriminate between the outcome of a scientific manipulation and their original predictions (i.e., to determine whether one's predictions were confirmed). Finally, this dissertation also explores the social context of learning science with peers in the preschool classroom. Due to little prior research in this area, it is currently unclear whether and how preschool children may benefit from working with peers on science activities in the classroom. This work aims to examine preschoolers' collaboration on a science learning activity, as well as the developmental function for such collaborative skills over the preschool years.

A Framework for Learning Analytics Using Commodity Wearable Devices.

PubMed

Lu, Yu; Zhang, Sen; Zhang, Zhiqiang; Xiao, Wendong; Yu, Shengquan

2017-06-14

We advocate for and introduce LEARNSense, a framework for learning analytics using commodity wearable devices to capture learner's physical actions and accordingly infer learner context (e.g., student activities and engagement status in class). Our work is motivated by the observations that: (a) the fine-grained individual-specific learner actions are crucial to understand learners and their context information; (b) sensor data available on the latest wearable devices (e.g., wrist-worn and eye wear devices) can effectively recognize learner actions and help to infer learner context information; (c) the commodity wearable devices that are widely available on the market can provide a hassle-free and non-intrusive solution. Following the above observations and under the proposed framework, we design and implement a sensor-based learner context collector running on the wearable devices. The latest data mining and sensor data processing techniques are employed to detect different types of learner actions and context information. Furthermore, we detail all of the above efforts by offering a novel and exemplary use case: it successfully provides the accurate detection of student actions and infers the student engagement states in class. The specifically designed learner context collector has been implemented on the commodity wrist-worn device. Based on the collected and inferred learner information, the novel intervention and incentivizing feedback are introduced into the system service. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation with the real-world experiments, surveys and interviews demonstrates the effectiveness and impact of the proposed framework and this use case. The F1 score for the student action classification tasks achieve 0.9, and the system can effectively differentiate the defined three learner states. Finally, the survey results show that the learners are satisfied with the use of our system (mean score of 3.7 with a standard deviation of 0.55).

Ten Tips for Engaging the Millennial Learner and Moving an Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum into the 21st Century

PubMed Central

Toohey, Shannon L.; Wray, Alisa; Wiechmann, Warren; Lin, Michelle; Boysen-Osborn, Megan

2016-01-01

Introduction Millennial learners are changing the face of residency education because they place emphasis on technology with new styles and means of learning. While research on the most effective way to teach the millennial learner is lacking, programs should consider incorporating educational theories and multimedia design principles to update the curriculum for these new learners. The purpose of the study is to discuss strategies for updating an emergency medicine (EM) residency program’s curriculum to accommodate the modern learner. Discussion These 10 tips provide detailed examples and approaches to incorporate technology and learning theories into an EM curriculum to potentially enhance learning and engagement by residents. Conclusion While it is unclear whether technologies actually promote or enhance learning, millennials use these technologies. Identifying best practice, grounded by theory and active learning principles, may help learners receive quality, high-yield education. Future studies will need to evaluate the efficacy of these techniques to fully delineate best practices. PMID:27330668

Ten Tips for Engaging the Millennial Learner and Moving an Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum into the 21st Century.

PubMed

Toohey, Shannon L; Wray, Alisa; Wiechmann, Warren; Lin, Michelle; Boysen-Osborn, Megan

2016-05-01

Millennial learners are changing the face of residency education because they place emphasis on technology with new styles and means of learning. While research on the most effective way to teach the millennial learner is lacking, programs should consider incorporating educational theories and multimedia design principles to update the curriculum for these new learners. The purpose of the study is to discuss strategies for updating an emergency medicine (EM) residency program's curriculum to accommodate the modern learner. These 10 tips provide detailed examples and approaches to incorporate technology and learning theories into an EM curriculum to potentially enhance learning and engagement by residents. While it is unclear whether technologies actually promote or enhance learning, millennials use these technologies. Identifying best practice, grounded by theory and active learning principles, may help learners receive quality, high-yield education. Future studies will need to evaluate the efficacy of these techniques to fully delineate best practices.

Diagnostic Assessment of Disadvantaged Vocational Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gemmill, Perry R.; Kiss, Mary Ellen

This learning activity package (LAP) titled Diagnostic Assessment of Disadvantaged Vocational Learners is one of a series designed to develop competencies needed by vocational teachers working with disadvantaged students. Each LAP concentrates on one general vocational teacher competency and contains the following sections: an introduction, a…

Are Online Learners Frustrated with Collaborative Learning Experiences?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capdeferro, Neus; Romero, Margarida

2012-01-01

Online education increasingly puts emphasis on collaborative learning methods. Despite the pedagogical advantages of collaborative learning, online learners can perceive collaborative learning activities as frustrating experiences. The purpose of this study was to characterize the feelings of frustration as a negative emotion among online learners…

Quantifying faculty teaching time in a department of obstetrics and gynecology.

PubMed

Emmons, S

1998-10-01

The goal of this project was to develop a reproducible system that measures quantity and quality of teaching in unduplicated hours, such that comparisons of teaching activities could be drawn within and across departments. Such a system could be used for allocating teaching monies and for assessing teaching as part of the promotion and tenure process. Various teaching activities, including time spent in clinic, rounds, and doing procedures, were enumerated. The faculty were surveyed about their opinions on the proportion of clinical time spent in teaching. The literature also was reviewed. Based on analysis of the faculty survey and the literature, a series of calculations were developed to divide clinical time among resident teaching, medical student teaching, and patient care. The only input needed was total time spent in the various clinical activities, time spent in didactic activities, and the resident procedure database. This article describes a simple and fair database system to calculate time spent teaching from activities such as clinic, ward rounds, labor and delivery, and surgery. The teaching portfolio database calculates teaching as a proportion of the faculty member's total activities. The end product is a report that provides a reproducible yearly summary of faculty teaching time per activity and per type of learner.

Computer-Supplemented Structural Drill Practice Versus Computer-Supplemented Semantic Drill Practice by Beginning College German Students: A Comparative Experiment

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-01

language education in recent years can be seen in the movement from a teacher- to a learner -centered approach. The best evidence of a teacher-centered...most dramatic effect on how the learner is viewed. The learner now is recognized as an active participant in the learning process rather than as a... best , is optional. Cognitive psychologists, such as Ausubel, and many foreign language educators (Rivers, 1976; Grittner, 1977) believe that practice

Teaching Advanced Learners in the General Education Classroom: Doing More with Less!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smutny, Joan Franklin; von Fremd, S.E.

2011-01-01

Many teachers ask: "What do I do for students who finish their work before everyone else? Is there anything I can use that doesn't require me to read a long textbook with complicated instructions?" If you would like to do more for gifted students and need simple strategies that you can use tomorrow, this book is for you. Inside are helpful methods…

The Influence of Complexity in Monologic versus Dialogic Tasks in Dutch L2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michel, Marije C.; Kuiken, Folkert; Vedder, Ineke

2007-01-01

This study puts the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2005) to the test with respect to its predictions of the effects of changes in task complexity ([plus or minus] few elements) and task condition ([plus or minus] monologic) on L2 performance. 44 learners of Dutch performed both a simple and a complex oral task in either a monologic or a dialogic…

Coordinating Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge to Make Sense of Word Equations: Understanding the Complexity of a "Simple" Completion Task at the Learner's Resolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taber, Keith S.; Bricheno, Pat

2009-01-01

The present paper discusses the conceptual demands of an apparently straightforward task set to secondary-level students--completing chemical word equations with a single omitted term. Chemical equations are of considerable importance in chemistry, and school students are expected to learn to be able to write and interpret them. However, it is…

Fluency-dependent cortical activation associated with speech production and comprehension in second language learners.

PubMed

Shimada, K; Hirotani, M; Yokokawa, H; Yoshida, H; Makita, K; Yamazaki-Murase, M; Tanabe, H C; Sadato, N

2015-08-06

This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain regions underlying language task performance in adult second language (L2) learners. Specifically, we identified brain regions where the level of activation was associated with L2 fluency levels. Thirty Japanese-speaking adults participated in the study. All participants were L2 learners of English and had achieved varying levels of fluency, as determined by a standardized L2 English proficiency test, the Versant English Test (Pearson Education Inc., 2011). When participants performed the oral sentence building task from the production tasks administered, the dorsal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) showed activation patterns that differed depending on the L2 fluency levels: The more fluent the participants were, the more dIFG activation decreased. This decreased activation of the dIFG might reflect the increased automaticity of a syntactic building process. In contrast, when participants performed an oral story comprehension task, the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) showed increased activation with higher fluency levels. This suggests that the learners with higher L2 fluency were actively engaged in post-syntactic integration processing supported by the left pSTG. These data imply that L2 fluency predicts neural resource allocation during language comprehension tasks as well as in production tasks. This study sheds light on the neural underpinnings of L2 learning by identifying the brain regions recruited during different language tasks across different modalities (production vs. comprehension). Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Creative Writing in the Language Arts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ediger, Marlow

Pupils need to express themselves in creative processes and products in the language arts curriculum. Too frequently, teachers require behavior which involves conformity on the part of learners. Specific objectives many times delimit pupils' opportunities to express original ideas that come from within the involved learners. Many activities can…

Developing Responsible Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gautum, Satyen; Jangam, Sachin; Loh, Kai Chee

2018-01-01

Developing responsible learners is one of the key education challenges of our time. Education literature suggests that for students to see themselves as active and necessary participants in their own learning, it is important that they view themselves as stakeholders in education. This research aims at exploring the effectiveness of instructional…

Accreditation not Aggravation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, Cath; Archer, Judith

2014-01-01

This paper describes an action research project that investigated a range of activities to improve learners' mathematical communication skills. It also gives details of a subsequent case study that illustrates how technology can provide a means of overcoming some of the difficulties learners and tutors face in communicating about numeracy, while…

Investigating an Intelligent System for Vocabulary Learning through Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stockwell, Glenn

2013-01-01

While learners can acquire vocabulary through extensive reading (Pigada & Schmitt, 2006), research suggests that acquisition can be more effective when supplemented with targeted vocabulary activities (e.g., Paribakht & Wesche, 1997). Problems arise, however, in determining what vocabulary learners have acquired, and what items should be…

Developing "Assessment Capable" Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Nancy; Fisher, Douglas; Hattie, John

2018-01-01

For students, the authors argue, the ability to assess their own learning--that is, to actively understand their own progress and trajectory--can have a significant impact on achievement levels. The authors discuss factors associated with "assessment-capable learners" and offer examples of how to foster such characteristics in classrooms.

Educational Needs and Learning Conditions of Adult Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davie, Lynn; And Others

A review of research in the past ten years documents adult learners' perceptions of their educational needs and their patterns of participation in adult educational activities. The populations studied include older adults, women, immigrants, native Canadians, undereducated adults, and handicapped adults. Each population is studied separately with…

Shared Pedagogical Understandings: Schoolwide Inclusion Practices Supporting Learner Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abawi, Lindy; Oliver, Mark

2013-01-01

Educational perspectives that recommend inclusion of children with special needs into mainstream classrooms remain a controversial topic. The Melbourne Declaration declares that all young Australians should be supported to become successful learners; confident and creative individuals; and active and informed citizens. So the question remains how…

An evaluation of remote communication versus face-to-face in clinical dental education.

PubMed

Martin, N; Lazalde, O Martínez; Stokes, C; Romano, D

2012-03-23

Distance learning and internet-based delivery of educational content are becoming very popular as an alternative to real face-to-face delivery. Clinical-based discussions still remain greatly face-to-face despite the advancement of remote communication and internet sharing technology. In this study we have compared three communication modalities between a learner and educator: audio and video using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) alone [AV]; audio and video VoIP with the addition of a three dimensional virtual artefact [AV3D] and physical face-to-face [FTF]. Clinical case discussions based on fictitious patients were held between a 'learner' and an 'expert' using the three communication modalities. The learner presented a clinical scenario to the experts, with the aid of a prop (partially dentate cast, digitised for AV3D), to obtain advice on the management of the clinical case. Each communication modality was tested in timed exercises in a random order among one of three experts (senior clinical restorative staff) and a learner (from a cohort of 15 senior clinical undergraduate students) all from the School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield. All learners and experts used each communication modality in turn with no prior training. Video recording and structured analysis were used to ascertain learner behaviour and levels of interactivity. Evaluation questionnaires were completed by experts and learners immediately after the experiment to ascertain effectiveness of information exchange and barriers/facilitators to communication. The video recordings showed that students were more relaxed with AV and AV3D than FTF (p = 0.01). The evaluation questionnaires showed that students felt they could provide (p = 0.03) and obtain (p = 0.003) more information using the FTF modality, followed by AV and then AV3D. Experts also ranked FTF better than AV and AV3D for providing (p = 0.012) and obtaining (p = 0) information to/from the expert. Physical face-to-face learning is a more effective communication modality for clinical case-based discussions between a learner and an expert. Remote, internet-based discussions enable a more relaxed discussion environment. The effectiveness of 3D supported internet-based communication is dependent upon a robust and simple to use interface, along with some prior training.

Can pluralistic approaches based upon unknown languages enhance learner engagement and lead to active social inclusion?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahm, Rebecca

2017-08-01

One way to foster active social inclusion is to enable students to develop a positive attitude to "foreignness". Creating a situation where mainstream students are less wary of foreign languages and cultures, and where newcomers feel their linguistic background is being valued, provides favourable conditions for the inclusion of these newcomers in the classroom and in society. However, language classrooms in French schools rarely take any previously acquired linguistic knowledge into account, thus unconsciously contributing to the rift between multilingual learners (e.g. 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrant children, refugees, children of parents with different mother tongues) and French learners. Native French learners' first experience of learning another language is usually when English is added as a subject to their curriculum in primary school. In some schools in France, English lessons now include the simulation of multilingual situations, designed in particular for the French "quasi-monolingual" students to lose their fear of unknown languages and "foreignness" in general. But the overall aim is to help both groups of learners become aware of the positive impact of multilingualism on cognitive abilities. However, to achieve long-term effects, this awareness-raising needs to be accompanied by maximum engagement on the part of the students. This article explores an instructional strategy termed Pluralistic Approaches based upon Unknown Languages (PAUL), which was designed to develop learning strategies of quasi-monolingual students in particular and to increase learner engagement more generally. The results of a small-scale PAUL study discussed by the author seem to confirm an increase in learner engagement leading to an enhancement of learning outcomes. Moreover, PAUL seems indeed suitable for helping to prepare the ground for social inclusion.

Learning and cognitive styles in web-based learning: theory, evidence, and application.

PubMed

Cook, David A

2005-03-01

Cognitive and learning styles (CLS) have long been investigated as a basis to adapt instruction and enhance learning. Web-based learning (WBL) can reach large, heterogenous audiences, and adaptation to CLS may increase its effectiveness. Adaptation is only useful if some learners (with a defined trait) do better with one method and other learners (with a complementary trait) do better with another method (aptitude-treatment interaction). A comprehensive search of health professions education literature found 12 articles on CLS in computer-assisted learning and WBL. Because so few reports were found, research from non-medical education was also included. Among all the reports, four CLS predominated. Each CLS construct was used to predict relationships between CLS and WBL. Evidence was then reviewed to support or refute these predictions. The wholist-analytic construct shows consistent aptitude-treatment interactions consonant with predictions (wholists need structure, a broad-before-deep approach, and social interaction, while analytics need less structure and a deep-before-broad approach). Limited evidence for the active-reflective construct suggests aptitude-treatment interaction, with active learners doing better with interactive learning and reflective learners doing better with methods to promote reflection. As predicted, no consistent interaction between the concrete-abstract construct and computer format was found, but one study suggests that there is interaction with instructional method. Contrary to predictions, no interaction was found for the verbal-imager construct. Teachers developing WBL activities should consider assessing and adapting to accommodate learners defined by the wholist-analytic and active-reflective constructs. Other adaptations should be considered experimental. Further WBL research could clarify the feasibility and effectiveness of assessing and adapting to CLS.

A Framework for Learning Analytics Using Commodity Wearable Devices

PubMed Central

Lu, Yu; Zhang, Sen; Zhang, Zhiqiang; Xiao, Wendong; Yu, Shengquan

2017-01-01

We advocate for and introduce LEARNSense, a framework for learning analytics using commodity wearable devices to capture learner’s physical actions and accordingly infer learner context (e.g., student activities and engagement status in class). Our work is motivated by the observations that: (a) the fine-grained individual-specific learner actions are crucial to understand learners and their context information; (b) sensor data available on the latest wearable devices (e.g., wrist-worn and eye wear devices) can effectively recognize learner actions and help to infer learner context information; (c) the commodity wearable devices that are widely available on the market can provide a hassle-free and non-intrusive solution. Following the above observations and under the proposed framework, we design and implement a sensor-based learner context collector running on the wearable devices. The latest data mining and sensor data processing techniques are employed to detect different types of learner actions and context information. Furthermore, we detail all of the above efforts by offering a novel and exemplary use case: it successfully provides the accurate detection of student actions and infers the student engagement states in class. The specifically designed learner context collector has been implemented on the commodity wrist-worn device. Based on the collected and inferred learner information, the novel intervention and incentivizing feedback are introduced into the system service. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation with the real-world experiments, surveys and interviews demonstrates the effectiveness and impact of the proposed framework and this use case. The F1 score for the student action classification tasks achieve 0.9, and the system can effectively differentiate the defined three learner states. Finally, the survey results show that the learners are satisfied with the use of our system (mean score of 3.7 with a standard deviation of 0.55). PMID:28613236

Assessment in Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Betty

2012-01-01

Offering meaningful service to the community while engaging in active learning is a pedagogical strategy that has come to be known as service-learning. Both learner and the community are mutual recipients of benefits derived from the process. The fundamental question that remains is, "How do we assess the learner in this non traditional…

Sustaining Motivation for Japanese "Kanji" Learning: Can Digital Games Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nesbitt, Dallas; Müller, Amanda

2016-01-01

Educational digital games are often presented at Technology in Language Education conferences. The games are entertaining and are backed by research detailing how games can improve the learning experience through active critical learning, learner interaction, competition, challenge, and high learner motivation. The authors, inspired by such…

East-Asian Teaching Practices through the Eyes of Western Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Rainbow Tsai-Hung

2014-01-01

Many East-Asian countries are actively positioning themselves as receiving countries of international students. Consequently, the number of international students in these countries is steadily growing. Given the differences between Eastern and Western conceptions of teaching and learning, it could be expected that Western learners studying in the…

Motivation and Interlanguage Pragmatics in Iranian English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khorshidi, Hassan Rasouli; Nimchahi, Abdolreza Bagherzadeh

2013-01-01

It is generally believed that interlanguage pragmatics and motivation play important roles in learning. Motivation is important because it determines the extent of the learner's active involvement and attitude toward learning. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of integrative and instrumental motivation on the…

Workplace Learning in Malaysia: The Learner's Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muhamad, Mazanah; Idris, Khairuddin

2005-01-01

This paper offers a scenario of workplace learning as practiced in Malaysia. Based on survey research, the article describes learner profiles, learning provision and pattern. The analysis shows that Malaysians participate in formal workplace learning as part of their employment activities. Workplace learning in Malaysia is contextual, promoted by…

Motivating Literacy Learners in Today's World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher, J., Ed.; Parkhill, F., Ed.; Gillon, G., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Motivating Literacy Learners in Today's World" provides insights into a broad spectrum of children's literacy learning. Motivation is the key theme and the authors show how this can be achieved through reading for pleasure; in writing activities at a number of levels; and through oral language development. Chapters include: (1)…

Facilitating Trust in Privacy-Preserving E-Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anwar, M.; Greer, J.

2012-01-01

This research explores a new model for facilitating trust in online e-learning activities. We begin by protecting the privacy of learners through identity management (IM), where personal information can be protected through some degree of participant anonymity or pseudonymity. In order to expect learners to trust other pseudonymous participants,…

Learner Performance in Multimedia Learning Arrangements: An Analysis across Instructional Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eysink, Tessa H. S.; de Jong, Ton; Berthold, Kirsten; Kolloffel, Bas; Opfermann, Maria; Wouters, Pieter

2009-01-01

In this study, the authors compared four multimedia learning arrangements differing in instructional approach on effectiveness and efficiency for learning: (a) hypermedia learning, (b) observational learning, (c) self-explanation-based learning, and (d) inquiry learning. The approaches all advocate learners' active attitude toward the learning…

Constructs for Web 2.0 Learning Environments: A Theatrical Metaphor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tu, Chih-Hsiung; Blocher, Michael; Roberts, Gayle

2008-01-01

Web 2.0 technologies empower learners to create personalized and community-based collaborative environments. Social networking technology affords learners to weave their human networks through active connections to understand what we know and we want to know. Social acts that bring out identities, awareness, relationships, connections, and…

Goals, the Learner, and the Language Arts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ediger, Marlow

Teachers, principals, and supervisors need to determine the kinds of learners being taught in the school/class setting. Are pupils good by nature, bad, or neutral? Concepts held pertaining to each pupil assist in determining objectives, learning activities, and evaluation techniques. The Puritans believed that individuals were born evil or sinful.…

Automatic Recommendations for E-Learning Personalization Based on Web Usage Mining Techniques and Information Retrieval

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khribi, Mohamed Koutheair; Jemni, Mohamed; Nasraoui, Olfa

2009-01-01

In this paper, we describe an automatic personalization approach aiming to provide online automatic recommendations for active learners without requiring their explicit feedback. Recommended learning resources are computed based on the current learner's recent navigation history, as well as exploiting similarities and dissimilarities among…

An Investigation between Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sener, Sabriye; Çokçaliskan, Ayten

2018-01-01

Exploring learning style and multiple intelligence type of learners can enable the students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and learn from them. It is also very important for teachers to understand their learners' learning styles and multiple intelligences since they can carefully identify their goals and design activities that can…

The Design of Computerized Practice Fields for Problem Solving and Contextualized Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riedel, Jens; Fitzgerald, Gail; Leven, Franz; Toenshoff, Burkhard

2003-01-01

Current theories of learning emphasize the importance of learner-centered, active, authentic, environments for meaningful knowledge construction. From this perspective, computerized case-based learning systems afford practice fields for learners to build domain knowledge and problem-solving skills and to support contextualized transfer of…

Collaborative Revision in L2 Writing: Learners' Reflections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Memari Hanjani, Alireza

2016-01-01

L2 learning literature has reflected on the problems surrounding the application of teacher written feedback and peer feedback in EFL contexts. To address the disadvantages of these feedback forms, this exploratory case study examined EFL learners' reactions to a collaborative revision activity. Interview data were collected from eight native…

May I Suggest? Comparing Three PLE Recommender Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Modritscher, Felix; Krumay, Barbara; El Helou, Sandy; Gillet, Denis; Nussbaumer, Alexander; Albert, Dietrich; Dahn, Ingo; Ullrich, Carsten

2011-01-01

Personal learning environment (PLE) solutions aim at empowering learners to design (ICT and web-based) environments for their learning activities, mashing-up content and people and apps for different learning contexts. Widely used in other application areas, recommender systems can be very useful for supporting learners in their PLE-based…

The Discovery of Personal Meaning: Affective Factors in Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorrell, Jeffrey

Learner-centered principles espoused by the American Psychological Association (APA) built on research of the last three decades suggest that learning does not simply entail coordinated cognitive processes. These 12 principles portray factors associated with learning as essential parts of the portrayal of learners as active creators of their own…

Implementing Godly Play in Educational Settings: A Cautionary Tale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grajczonek, Jan; Truasheim, Maureen

2017-01-01

At the heart of all curriculum decision-making is the learner. Contemporary early childhood education theory and practice emphasises young children's agency and voice in their learning paying particular attention to valuing each child's sociocultural contexts. As learners, children are considered capable and active participants rather than as…

Teaching English Metaphors Using Cross-Linguistic Awareness-Raising Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deignan, A.; Gabrys, D.; Solska, A.

1997-01-01

Reports on a translation exercise undertaken by Polish learners of English which revealed how metaphorical expressions vary between the two languages and how this variation confuses learners. Suggests that group discussion and comparison of metaphors in both languages will increase students' comprehension and use of metaphors. (nine references)…

Literature on the Safe and Disruptive Learning Potential of Mobile Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koszalka, Tiffany A.; Ntloedibe-Kuswani, G. S.

2010-01-01

Worldwide growth in use of mobile phones has fostered the emergence of mobile learning. Mobile technologies are used both in classrooms to support instruction (safe) and as tools that significantly change instructional activities, learner roles, and learning location (disruptive). Learners become less consumers of information and more…

Houle's Typology: Time for Reconsideration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Howard R. D.

According to Houle's 1961 typology, adult learners may be classified as being primarily goal-oriented, activity-oriented, or learning-oriented learners. Since 1961, society has moved from an industrial age to a post-technological era of information and service. In view of the extensive social changes that have occurred since 1961, Houle's typology…

Upingakuneng (When They Are Ready): Dynamic Assessment in a Third Semester Yugtun Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siekmann, Sabine; Charles, Walkie

2011-01-01

Set against instructional practices that promote competition and individual performance, Dynamic Assessment, in our view, offers a more appropriate form of pedagogy for learners from cultural backgrounds that favour cooperation during joint activity. Indeed, these learners appear to be disadvantaged when negotiating the contrasting values and…

Adult Students: Recruitment and Retention. Practice Application Brief No. 18.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wonacott, Michael E.

How to attract and retain adult students remains an enduring question for adult education providers. Recent research sheds light on adult learners' unique learning goals, needs, and aspirations and offers guidance on recruiting and retaining adult learners. Adult students' participation and persistence in educational activities is a complex…

Dynamics of Affective States during Complex Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Mello, Sidney; Graesser, Art

2012-01-01

We propose a model to explain the dynamics of affective states that emerge during deep learning activities. The model predicts that learners in a state of engagement/flow will experience cognitive disequilibrium and confusion when they face contradictions, incongruities, anomalies, obstacles to goals, and other impasses. Learners revert into the…

Understanding the Connection between Epistemic Beliefs and Internet Searching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulyshen, Tianyi Zhang; Koehler, Matthew J.; Gao, Fei

2015-01-01

Within the context of exploring an ill-structured task using the Google search engine, this study examined (a) the connections between general epistemic beliefs and the complexity of learners' knowledge exploration processes (i.e., learning complexity) and (b) the role of activating learners' task-oriented epistemic beliefs (i.e., epistemic…

Student-Produced Video: Two Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carney, Nathaniel; Foss, Patrick

2008-01-01

This article introduces the idea of using video production to engage second language learners in learner-centered, project-based learning activities to motivate them to learn and participate through writing, directing, acting in, and editing a movie. The authors describe two projects. In the first project, four pairs of students each created a…

EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension and Awareness of Metacognitive Strategies: How Are They Related?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Alwan, Ahmed; Asassfeh, Sahail; Al-Shboul, Yousef

2013-01-01

Metacognitive strategies play an important role in many cognitive activities related to language use in oral communication. This study explored metacognitve listening strategies awareness and its relationship with listening comprehension on a convient sample of 386 tenth-grade EFL learners using two instruments: (a) Metacognition Awareness…

Does the sequence of instruction matter during simulation?

PubMed

Stefaniak, Jill E; Turkelson, Carman L

2014-02-01

Instructional strategies must be balanced when subjecting students to full-immersion simulation so as not to discourage learning and increase cognitive overload. The purpose of this study was to determine if participating in a simulation exercise before lecture yielded better performance outcomes among novice learners. Twenty-nine participants were divided into 2 groups as follows: group 1 participated in simulation exercises followed by a didactic lecture and group 2 participated in the same learning activities presented in the opposite order. Participants were administered a multiple-choice cognitive assessment upon completion of a workshop. Learners who participated in the simulated exercises followed by the didactic lecture performed better on postassessments as compared with those who participated in the simulation after the lecture. A repeated-measures or nested analysis of variance generated statistically significant results in terms of model fit F (α=0.05; 4.54)=176.07 with a P<0.0001. Despite their higher levels of increased performance, 76% of those who participated in simulation activities first indicated that they would have preferred to participate in a lecture first. The findings of this study suggest that differences occur among learners when the sequencing of instructional components is altered. Learners who participated in simulation before lecture demonstrated increased knowledge compared with learners who participated in simulation after a lecture.

Assessment of minimally invasive surgical skills of pre-medical students: What can we learn from future learners?

PubMed

Borahay, Mostafa A; Jackson, Mary; Tapısız, Omer L; Lyons, Elizabeth; Patel, Pooja R; Nassar, Ramsey; Kılıç, Gökhan Sami

2014-01-01

Knowledge of baseline laparoscopic and robotic surgical skills of future learners is essential to develop teaching strategies that best fit them. The objectives of this study are to determine baseline laparoscopic and robotic skills of high school and college students and compare them to those of current obstetrics and gynecology residents. A cross-sectional (Class II-2) pilot study. Laparoscopic and robotic surgical skills of college and high (secondary) school students were evaluated using simulators and compared to those of obstetrics and gynecology residents. In addition, questionnaire data were collected regarding video game playing and computer use. A total of 17 students, both high school (n=9) and college (n=8), in addition to 11 residents, completed the study. Overall, students performed comparably to the residents in simple exercises (p>.05). However, students took significantly longer time to complete complex exercises (p=.001). Finally, students played video games significantly more than residents (p<.001). Future learners may have a different background skill set. This difference may be related to improved hand-eye coordination, possibly due to playing video games. The results of this pilot study should spur more research into surgical teaching strategies.

Use of Simulation-Based Training to Aid in Implementing Complex Health Technology.

PubMed

Devers, Veffa

2018-01-01

Clinicians are adult learners in a complex environment that historically does not invest in training in a way that is conducive to these types of learners. Adult learners are independent, self-directed, and goal oriented. In today's fast-paced clinical setting, a practical need exists for nurses and clinicians to master the technology they use on a daily basis, especially as medical devices have become more interconnected and complex. As hospitals look to embrace new technologies, medical device companies must provide clinical end-user training. This should be a required part of the selection process when considering the purchase of any complex medical technology. However, training busy clinicians in a traditional classroom setting can be difficult and costly. A simple, less expensive solution is online simulation training. This interactive training provides a virtual, "hands-on" end-user experience in advance of implementing new equipment. Online simulation training ensures knowledge retention and comprehension and, most importantly, that the training leads to end-user satisfaction and the ability to confidently operate new equipment. A review of the literature revealed that online simulation, coupled with the use of adult learning principles and experiential learning, may enhance the experience of clinical end users.

An associative model of adaptive inference for learning word-referent mappings.

PubMed

Kachergis, George; Yu, Chen; Shiffrin, Richard M

2012-04-01

People can learn word-referent pairs over a short series of individually ambiguous situations containing multiple words and referents (Yu & Smith, 2007, Cognition 106: 1558-1568). Cross-situational statistical learning relies on the repeated co-occurrence of words with their intended referents, but simple co-occurrence counts cannot explain the findings. Mutual exclusivity (ME: an assumption of one-to-one mappings) can reduce ambiguity by leveraging prior experience to restrict the number of word-referent pairings considered but can also block learning of non-one-to-one mappings. The present study first trained learners on one-to-one mappings with varying numbers of repetitions. In late training, a new set of word-referent pairs were introduced alongside pretrained pairs; each pretrained pair consistently appeared with a new pair. Results indicate that (1) learners quickly infer new pairs in late training on the basis of their knowledge of pretrained pairs, exhibiting ME; and (2) learners also adaptively relax the ME bias and learn two-to-two mappings involving both pretrained and new words and objects. We present an associative model that accounts for both results using competing familiarity and uncertainty biases.

Integrating Learning Styles and Personality Traits into an Affective Model to Support Learner's Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leontidis, Makis; Halatsis, Constantin

The aim of this paper is to present a model in order to integrate the learning style and the personality traits of a learner into an enhanced Affective Style which is stored in the learner’s model. This model which can deal with the cognitive abilities as well as the affective preferences of the learner is called Learner Affective Model (LAM). The LAM is used to retain learner’s knowledge and activities during his interaction with a Web-based learning environment and also to provide him with the appropriate pedagogical guidance. The proposed model makes use of an ontological approach in combination with the Bayesian Network model and contributes to the efficient management of the LAM in an Affective Module.

Developing the Lift and Shift Game to Introduce Tenses at the Initial Stage to Children as Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hafidah, Agustina Sri

2016-01-01

This research is begun by finding some information that some Primary schools' students, especially in the remote areas have difficulty in identifying tenses, even the simple models. From the students' scores in the pretest, it can be known that most of them were in the very poor category. The condition showed that most of the students did not…

Development of a Brochure for Increasing Awareness of Inherited Breast Cancer in Black Women

PubMed Central

Quinn, Gwendolyn P.; Gjyshi, Anxhela; Pal, Tuya

2011-01-01

Low levels of awareness about hereditary breast cancer and ovarian cancer and underutilization of genetic services combined with the high incidence of early onset breast cancer in the black community underscore the urgent need to provide information about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to black women. The primary goal of the present study was to develop a culturally targeted brochure designed to increase awareness about inherited breast cancer among black women using the principles of Learner Verification. Three focus groups were conducted with black women, including those with or without a history of breast cancer (n = 46), to evaluate the brochure. Data were analyzed through hand coding using a simple classification system placing participants' responses in the predetermined Learner Verification categories. On the basis of the feedback obtained, the brochure has been modified to improve cultural-targeting, relevance, and clarity and has been made available for dissemination. Our study illustrates the importance of obtaining feedback from the target audience when developing a culturally targeted informational brochure for black women. Further, the complexity of our subject matter (i.e., inherited breast and ovarian cancer) underscores the importance of using inviting visuals and personal vignettes, while maintaining a simple and clear message. PMID:21275654

Investigation of secondary school, undergraduate, and graduate learners' mental models of ionic bonding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coll, Richard K.; Treagust, David F.

2003-05-01

Secondary school, undergraduate, and graduate level learners' mental models of bonding in ionic substances were explored using an interview protocol that involved the use of physical substances and a focus card containing depictions of ionic bonding and structure. Teachers and faculty from the teaching institutions were interviewed to contextualize teaching models within the educational setting for the inquiry. These data resulted in two socially negotiated consensus teaching models and a series of criterial attributes for these models: the essential qualities, all of which must be negotiated, if the model is used in a way that is acceptable to scientists. The secondary school learners see ionic bonding as consisting of attraction of oppositely charged species that arise from the transfer of electrons driven by the desire of atoms to obtain an octet of electrons. The undergraduates see the lattice structure as a key component of ionic substances and quickly identified specific ionic lattices for the physical prompts used as probes. The graduates also identified strongly with ionic lattices, were less likely to focus on particular ionic structures, and had a stronger appreciation for the notion of the ionic-covalent continuum. The research findings suggest that learners at all educational levels harbor a number of alternative conceptions and prefer to use simple mental models. These findings suggest that teachers and university faculty need to provide stronger links between the detailed nature of a model and its intended purpose.

An interplay of fusiform gyrus and hippocampus enables prototype- and exemplar-based category learning.

PubMed

Lech, Robert K; Güntürkün, Onur; Suchan, Boris

2016-09-15

The aim of the present study was to examine the contributions of different brain structures to prototype- and exemplar-based category learning using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twenty-eight subjects performed a categorization task in which they had to assign prototypes and exceptions to two different families. This test procedure usually produces different learning curves for prototype and exception stimuli. Our behavioral data replicated these previous findings by showing an initially superior performance for prototypes and typical stimuli and a switch from a prototype-based to an exemplar-based categorization for exceptions in the later learning phases. Since performance varied, we divided participants into learners and non-learners. Analysis of the functional imaging data revealed that the interaction of group (learners vs. non-learners) and block (Block 5 vs. Block 1) yielded an activation of the left fusiform gyrus for the processing of prototypes, and an activation of the right hippocampus for exceptions after learning the categories. Thus, successful prototype- and exemplar-based category learning is associated with activations of complementary neural substrates that constitute object-based processes of the ventral visual stream and their interaction with unique-cue representations, possibly based on sparse coding within the hippocampus. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Distributing vs. Blocking Learning Questions in a Web-Based Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapp, Felix; Proske, Antje; Narciss, Susanne; Körndle, Hermann

2015-01-01

Effective studying in web-based learning environments (web-LEs) requires cognitive engagement and demands learners to regulate their learning activities. One way to support learners in web-LEs is to provide interactive learning questions within the learning environment. Even though research on learning questions has a long tradition, there are…

Contextual Clues Vocabulary Strategies Choice among Business Management Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Siti Nurshafezan; Muhammad, Ahmad Mazli; Kasim, Aini Mohd

2018-01-01

New trends in vocabulary learning focus on strategic vocabulary learning to create more active and independent language learners. Utilising suitable contextual clues strategies is seen as vital in enabling and equipping language learners with the skill to guess word meaning accurately, moving away from dependency on a dictionary to improve their…

Using Digital Storytelling as a Language Experience Approach Activity: Integrating English Language Learners into a Museum Field Trip

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pappamihiel, N. Eleni; Knight, Jennifer Hatch

2016-01-01

Second language learners face countless obstacles in the classroom, including communication and comprehension limitations and difficulty building relationships with peers. Many teachers struggle to build an inclusive classroom environment and ensure all students, especially those with linguistic and other learning disadvantages, are learning. This…

Pedagogy and Practice in Museum Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Din, Herminia

2015-01-01

How best might museums harness the interactive capabilities of online environments to provide active teaching and learning experiences for diverse learners and communities? How can museums engage learners in ways that encourage them to visit the museum in person and/or further explore online resources? What should be the role of the museum in…

sTeam--Providing Primary Media Functions for Web-Based Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hampel, Thorsten

The World Wide Web has developed as the de facto standard for computer based learning. However, as a server-centered approach, it confines readers and learners to passive nonsequential reading. Authoring and Web-publishing systems aim at supporting the authors' design process. Consequently, learners' activities are confined to selecting and…

Adults as Learners. Increasing Participation and Facilitating Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, K. Patricia

The literature on adult learners is reviewed, and two models of adult learning are developed. Demographic, social, and technological trends that stimulate the increasing demand for learning opportunities are examined, and the views of those who see dangers in new pressures on adults to participate in organized learning activities are considered.…

Design of Open Content Social Learning Based on the Activities of Learner and Similar Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

John, Benneaser; Jayakumar, J.; Thavavel, V.; Arumugam, Muthukumar; Poornaselvan, K. J.

2017-01-01

Teaching and learning are increasingly taking advantage of the rapid growth in Internet resources, open content, mobile technologies and social media platforms. However, due to the generally unstructured nature and overwhelming quantity of learning content, effective learning remains challenging. In an effort to close this gap, the authors…

Initial Perceptions of Open Higher Education Students with Learner Management Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altunoglu, Asu

2017-01-01

Learner management systems (LMS) are used in open education as a means of managing and recording e-learning facilities as well as improving student engagement. Students benefit from them to become active participants in the decision-making process of their own learning. This study aims to investigate the initial perceptions of students…

Mediated Vocabulary in Native Speaker-Learner Interactions during an Oral Portfolio Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tocaimaza-Hatch, C. Cecilia

2016-01-01

This project investigated vocabulary learning from a sociocultural perspective--in particular, the way in which lexical knowledge was mediated in Spanish second language (L2) learners' and native speakers' (NSs') interactions. Nine students who were enrolled in an advanced conversation course completed an oral portfolio assignment consisting of…

Activities for Challenging Gifted Learners by Increasing Complexity in the Common Core

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeone, Alyssa; Caruso, Lenora; Bettle, Kailyn; Chase, Ashley; Bryson, Bridget; Schneider, Jean S.; Rule, Audrey C.

2015-01-01

Gifted learners need opportunities for critical and creative thinking to stretch their minds and imaginations. Strategies for increasing complexity in the four core areas of language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies were addressed using the Common Core and Iowa Core Standards through several methods. Descriptive adjective object…

Three Ring Circus of Differentiated Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scigliano, Deborah; Hipsky, Shellie

2010-01-01

The teacher as the classroom's ringleader, trying to fulfill the needs of all of her/his learners, at times, can seem like a three-ring circus. Just as enjoyment comes from the frenetic activity of the circus, benefits can stem from differentiating instruction for one's learners. These benefits include a sense of self-efficacy, increased content…

Learning to Express Gratitude in Mandarin Chinese through Web-Based Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2016-01-01

This study explored the effectiveness of a self-access website as a tool to teach expressions of gratitude to learners of Mandarin Chinese. The web-based instruction included explicit instruction on how to express gratitude appropriately in Mandarin and various consciousness-raising exercises/activities. Two groups of learners who differed in…

Development of Interactive and Reflective Learning among Malaysian Online Distant Learners: An ESL Instructor's Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murugaiah, Puvaneswary; Thang, Siew Ming

2010-01-01

Technology has brought tremendous advancements in online education, spurring transformations in online pedagogical practices. Online learning in the past was passive, using the traditional teacher-centred approach. However, with the tools available today, it can be active, collaborative, and meaningful. A well-developed task can impel learners to…

Student Engagement in Long-Term Collaborative EFL Storytelling Activities: An Analysis of Learners with English Proficiency Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yun-Yin; Liu, Chen-Chung; Wang, Yu; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Lin, Hung-Ming

2017-01-01

English proficiency difference among students is a challenging pedagogical issue in EFL classrooms worldwide. Collaborative digital storytelling has been adopted in language learning settings to increase motivation and engagement, especially for young learners. However, it remains unknown whether students of different proficiency levels can…

Impact of Consciousness-Raising Activities on Young English Language Learners' Grammar Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fatemipour, Hamidreza; Hemmati, Shiva

2015-01-01

Grammar Consciousness-Raising (GCR) is an approach to teaching of grammar which learners instead of being taught the given rules, experience language data. The data challenge them to rethink, restructure their existing mental grammar and construct an explicit rule to describe the grammatical feature which the data illustrate (Ellis, 2002). And…

Automated Error Detection for Developing Grammar Proficiency of ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feng, Hui-Hsien; Saricaoglu, Aysel; Chukharev-Hudilainen, Evgeny

2016-01-01

Thanks to natural language processing technologies, computer programs are actively being used not only for holistic scoring, but also for formative evaluation of writing. CyWrite is one such program that is under development. The program is built upon Second Language Acquisition theories and aims to assist ESL learners in higher education by…

Redrawing the Boundaries of Language Teacher Cognition: Language Teacher Educators' Emotion, Cognition, and Activity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golombek, Paula R.

2015-01-01

This article, grounded in a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, details the self-inquiry of a language teacher educator who examined her "emotional dissonance" regarding her mediation of the reflection journals of a teacher learner teaching an ESL class during an internship. Data from the teacher learner's reflection journals and the…

The Effects of Input Enhancement and Recasts on the Development of Second Language Pragmatic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Minh Thi Thuy; Pham, Hanh Thi; Pham, Tam Minh

2017-01-01

This study investigates the combined effects of input enhancement and recasts on a group of Vietnamese EFL learners' performance of constructive criticism during peer review activities. Particularly, the study attempts to find out whether the instruction works for different aspects of pragmatic learning, including the learners' sociopragmatic and…

Digital Stories: Bringing Multimodal Texts to the Spanish Writing Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oskoz, Ana; Elola, Idoia

2016-01-01

Despite the availability and growing use of digital story software for authoring and instructional purposes, little is known about learners' perceptions on its integration in the foreign language writing class. Following both a social semiotics approach and activity theory, this study focuses on six advanced Spanish learners' perceptions about the…

Creating Belonging and Transformation through the Adoption of Flexible Pedagogies in Masters Level International Business Management Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matheson, Ruth; Sutcliffe, Mark

2017-01-01

Flexible pedagogies [Ryan and Tilbury 2013. "Flexible Pedagogies: New Pedagogical Ideas." York: Higher Education Academy] place learner empowerment at the centre of curriculum development. Learner empowerment requires students to feel that they belong and are active in the learning process. This paper illuminates how, through the…

Competence Description for Personal Recommendations: The Importance of Identifying the Complexity of Learning and Performance Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prins, Frans J.; Nadolski, Rob J.; Berlanga, Adriana J.; Drachsler, Hendrik; Hummel, Hans G. K.; Koper, Rob

2008-01-01

For competences development of learners and professionals, target competences and corresponding competence development opportunities have to be identified. Personal Recommender Systems (PRS) provide personal recommendations for learners aimed at finding and selecting learning activities that best match their needs. This article argues that a…

Uptake in Incidental Focus on Form in Meaning-Focused ESL Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loewen, Shawn

2004-01-01

Uptake is a term used to describe learners' responses to the provision of feedback after either an erroneous utterance or a query about a linguistic item within the context of meaning-focused language activities. Some researchers argue that uptake may contribute to second language acquisition by facilitating noticing and pushing learners to…

Making Culture Happen in the English Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yakup, Doganay; Ashirimbetova, Madina; Davis, Brent

2013-01-01

The issue of introducing the target culture into language classroom practice has long been an object of debates as well as the opinions of the learners towards it. Eventually, modern practitioners found a way of having the language learners acquainted with the target culture and introducing culture through culture-based textbook activities.…

Using Netbooks to Support Mobile Learners' Investigations across Activities and Places

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaved, Mark; Collins, Trevor; Mulholland, Paul; Kerawalla, Lucinda; Jones, Ann; Scanlon, Eileen; Littleton, Karen; Blake, Canan; Petrou, Marilena; Clough, Gill; Twiner, Alison

2010-01-01

We explore how small-format laptops ("netbooks") have been used within evidence-based investigations undertaken by secondary school students, to what extent these are suitable for effectively supporting learners across different locations and contexts, and their implications for open learning. Over the course of seven trials with 300…

Online Teacher Development: Collaborating in a Virtual Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ernest, Pauline; Guitert Catasús, Montse; Hampel, Regine; Heiser, Sarah; Hopkins, Joseph; Murphy, Linda; Stickler, Ursula

2013-01-01

Over recent years, educational institutions have been making increasing use of virtual environments to set up collaborative activities for learners. While it is recognized that teachers play an important role in facilitating learner collaboration online, they may not have the necessary skills to do so successfully. Thus, a small-scale professional…

Learner-Controlled Scaffolding Linked to Open-Ended Problems in a Digital Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edson, Alden Jack

2017-01-01

This exploratory study reports on how students activated learner-controlled scaffolding and navigated through sequences of connected problems in a digital learning environment. A design experiment was completed to (re)design, iteratively develop, test, and evaluate a digital version of an instructional unit focusing on binomial distributions and…

Improving Learners' Oral Fuency through Computer-Mediated Emotional Intelligence Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdolrezapour, Parisa

2017-01-01

Previous studies have shown that emotional intelligence (henceforth, EI) has a significant impact on important life outcomes (e.g., mental and physical health, academic achievement, work performance, and social relationships). This study aimed to see whether there is any relationship between EI and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners'…

ESL Teachers' Perceptions about English Learners' Reading Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protacio, Maria Selena; Jang, Bong Gee

2016-01-01

The role of motivation in engaging students in reading activities and thus improving their reading achievement has been widely reported for the past decades. However, despite the increasing numbers of English learners (ELs) in the United States, little is known about how teachers perceive their motivation to read. Focus group methodology was used…

Fostering Active Processing of Instructional Explanations of Learners with High and Low Prior Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acuna, Santiago R.; Garcia Rodicio, Hector; Sanchez, Emilio

2011-01-01

Despite the potential advantages of instructional explanations, evidence indicates that they are usually ineffective. Subsequent work has shown that in order to make instructional explanations effective indeed, one successful strategy is to combine them with indications of the limitations in learners' understanding that they are intended to…

Mining Formative Evaluation Rules Using Web-Based Learning Portfolios for Web-Based Learning Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chih-Ming; Hong, Chin-Ming; Chen, Shyuan-Yi; Liu, Chao-Yu

2006-01-01

Learning performance assessment aims to evaluate what knowledge learners have acquired from teaching activities. Objective technical measures of learning performance are difficult to develop, but are extremely important for both teachers and learners. Learning performance assessment using learning portfolios or web server log data is becoming an…

Urban School Leadership for Elementary Science Education: Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alarcon, Maricela H.

2012-01-01

Science education reform and state testing accountability call upon principals to become instructional leaders in science. Specifically, elementary school principals must take an active role in science instruction to effectively improve science education for all students including English Language Learners. As such, the research questioned posed…

Asking the Right Questions: Teachers' Questions Can Build Students' English Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Jane D.; Flynn, Kathleen

2008-01-01

This article presents an instructional strategy that helps teachers engage English language learners (ELLs) in learning, thus increasing their own belief that they can effectively teach English language learners, and proposes a professional development activity that will cement this strategy in teachers' minds. By using an action research…

Battling Obesity in K-12 Learners from an Exercise Physiology Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rattigan, Peter; Biren, Greg

2007-01-01

Physical education practitioners and programs have the opportunity and obligation to help children become physically educated, healthy, and active adults. This article discusses the battle against obesity in K-12 learners from an exercise physiology perspective and focuses on the fact that practitioners have all the tools they need to battle this…

The ESP Instruction: A Study Based on the Pattern of Autonomous Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jianfeng

2013-01-01

Autonomous inquiry learning is a kind of learning model, which relies mainly on learners and emphasizes that learners should inquire knowledge actively; moreover, ESP, which emphasizes the combination of language learning and specific purposes learning, is a goal-oriented and well targeted instruction system. Therefore, ESP and autonomous inquiry…

An Analysis of Spanish L2 Learners' Orientation through Activity Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tocaimaza-Hatch, C. Cecilia

2015-01-01

Orientation is defined as the way in which individuals view a task and the means they devise to fulfill it (Appel & Lantolf, 1994; Roebuck, 2000). This study investigated the orientation of twelve learners enrolled in a fourth-semester Spanish L2 university course through the analysis of their interactions during a collaborative…

MALL in the Wild: Learners' Designs for Scaffolding Vocabulary Learning Trajectories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Underwood, Joshua; Luckin, Rosemary; Winters, Niall

2014-01-01

This study aims to inform the design of mobile apps for vocabulary learning. Learning vocabulary involves developing, connecting, and sustaining various types of knowledge and skills. Learners do not typically acquire these all at once, but rather over the course of distinct episodes of activity. Yet, little is known about learning experience…

Learning L2 Vocabulary with American TV Drama "From the Learner's Perspective"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yu-Chia

2012-01-01

Following the trend of computer assisted language learning (CALL), in Taiwan, most language classes now have equivalent media support for language teachers and learners. Implementing videos into classroom activities is one of the choices. The current study explores the process of implementing American TV drama in L2 vocabulary learning from…

Using Video To Teach for Sociolinguistic Competence in the Foreign Language Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witten, Caryn

2000-01-01

This study worked to develop the sociolinguistic competence of college learners of first-year Spanish using input enhancement techniques that required learners to actively view video. Research shows that native speakers are more sensitive to sociolinguistic errors than to grammatical errors made by nonnative speakers. Therefore, the study…

An Open-Sourced and Interactive Ebook Development Program for Minority Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheepy, Emily; Sundberg, Ross; Laurie, Anne

2017-01-01

According to Long (2014), genuine task-based pedagogy is centered around the real-world activities that learners need to complete using the target language. We are developing the OurStories mobile application to support learners and instructors of minority languages in the development of personally relevant, task-based learning resources. The…

A Semantic Basis for Meaning Construction in Constructivist Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Badie, Farshad

2015-01-01

Regarding constructivism as a learning philosophy and/or a model of knowing, a person (learner or mentor) based on her/his preconceptions and on personal knowings could actively participate in an interaction with another person (learner or mentor) in order to construct her/his personal knowledge. In this research I will analyse "meaning…

Favouring Reflexivity in Technology-Enhanced Learning Systems: Towards Smart Uses of Traces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, Sébastien; Michel, Christine; Ollagnier-Beldame, Magali

2016-01-01

During learning activities, reflexive processes allow learners to realise what they have done, understand why, decide on new actions and gain motivation. They help learners to regulate their actions by themselves, that is, to develop metacognitive regulation skills. Computer environments can support reflexive processes to support human learning,…

Equitable Instruction for Secondary Latino English Learners: Examining Critical Principles of Differentiation in Lesson Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elsbree, Anne René; Hernández, Ana M.; Daoud, Annette

2014-01-01

The research emphasizes the need for educators to take more ownership of Latino English Learners (ELs) and identify effective lesson differentiation through subject area content (instruction), process (activities), and products (assessments). Based on the literature review, school achievement improves when practices address students' culture,…

Complexity, Training Paradigm Design, and the Contribution of Memory Subsystems to Grammar Learning

PubMed Central

Ettlinger, Marc; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2016-01-01

Although there is variability in nonnative grammar learning outcomes, the contributions of training paradigm design and memory subsystems are not well understood. To examine this, we presented learners with an artificial grammar that formed words via simple and complex morphophonological rules. Across three experiments, we manipulated training paradigm design and measured subjects' declarative, procedural, and working memory subsystems. Experiment 1 demonstrated that passive, exposure-based training boosted learning of both simple and complex grammatical rules, relative to no training. Additionally, procedural memory correlated with simple rule learning, whereas declarative memory correlated with complex rule learning. Experiment 2 showed that presenting corrective feedback during the test phase did not improve learning. Experiment 3 revealed that structuring the order of training so that subjects are first exposed to the simple rule and then the complex improved learning. The cumulative findings shed light on the contributions of grammatical complexity, training paradigm design, and domain-general memory subsystems in determining grammar learning success. PMID:27391085

A comparison of methods for teaching receptive labeling to children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Grow, Laura L; Carr, James E; Kodak, Tiffany M; Jostad, Candice M; Kisamore, April N

2011-01-01

Many early intervention curricular manuals recommend teaching auditory-visual conditional discriminations (i.e., receptive labeling) using the simple-conditional method in which component simple discriminations are taught in isolation and in the presence of a distracter stimulus before the learner is required to respond conditionally. Some have argued that this procedure might be susceptible to faulty stimulus control such as stimulus overselectivity (Green, 2001). Consequently, there has been a call for the use of alternative teaching procedures such as the conditional-only method, which involves conditional discrimination training from the onset of intervention. The purpose of the present study was to compare the simple-conditional and conditional-only methods for teaching receptive labeling to 3 young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The data indicated that the conditional-only method was a more reliable and efficient teaching procedure. In addition, several error patterns emerged during training using the simple-conditional method. The implications of the results with respect to current teaching practices in early intervention programs are discussed.

Work-Based Curriculum to Broaden Learners' Participation in Science: Insights for Designers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bopardikar, Anushree; Bernstein, Debra; Drayton, Brian; McKenney, Susan

2018-05-01

Around the globe, science education during compulsory schooling is envisioned for all learners regardless of their educational and career aspirations, including learners bound to the workforce upon secondary school completion. Yet, a major barrier in attaining this vision is low learner participation in secondary school science. Because curricula play a major role in shaping enacted learning, this study investigated how designers developed a high school physics curriculum with positive learning outcomes in learners with varied inclinations. Qualitative analysis of documents and semistructured interviews with the designers focused on the curriculum in different stages—from designers' ideas about learning goals to their vision for enactment to the printed materials—and on the design processes that brought them to fruition. This revealed designers' emphases on fostering workplace connections via learning goals and activities, and printed supports. The curriculum supported workplace-inspired, hands-on design-and-build projects, developed to address deeply a limited set of standards aligned learning goals. The curriculum also supported learners' interactions with relevant workplace professionals. To create these features, the designers reviewed other curricula to develop vision and printed supports, tested activities internally to assess content coverage, surveyed states in the USA receiving federal school-to-work grants and reviewed occupational information to choose unit topics and career contexts, and visited actual workplaces to learn about authentic praxis. Based on the worked example, this paper offers guidelines for designing work-based science curriculum products and processes that can serve the work of other designers, as well as recommendations for research serving designers and policymakers.

The cognitive demands of standardized patients: understanding limitations in attention and working memory with the decoding of nonverbal behavior during improvisations.

PubMed

Newlin-Canzone, Elizabeth T; Scerbo, Mark W; Gliva-McConvey, Gayle; Wallace, Amelia M

2013-08-01

This study was designed to look at the challenges of standardized patients while in role and to use the findings to enhance training methods. The study investigated the effect of improvisations and multiple-task performance on the ability of standardized patients to observe and evaluate another's communication behaviors and its associated mental workload. Twenty standardized patients participated in a 2 types of interview (with and without improvisations)-by-2 types of observation (passive and active) within-groups design. The results indicated that both active observations and improvisations had a negative effect on the standardized patients' ability to observe the learner, missing more than 75% of nonverbal behaviors during active improvisational encounters. Moreover, standardized patients experienced the highest mental demand during active improvisational encounters. The findings suggest that the need to simultaneously portray a character and assess a learner may negatively affect the ability of standardized patients to provide accurate evaluations of a learner, particularly when they are required to improvise responses, underscoring the need for specific and targeted training.

Strategies for active learning in online continuing education.

PubMed

Phillips, Janet M

2005-01-01

Online continuing education and staff development is on the rise as the benefits of access, convenience, and quality learning are continuing to take shape. Strategies to enhance learning call for learner participation that is self-directed and independent, thus changing the educator's role from expert to coach and facilitator. Good planning of active learning strategies promotes optimal learning whether the learning content is presented in a course or a just-in-time short module. Active learning strategies can be used to enhance online learning during all phases of the teaching-learning process and can accommodate a variety of learning styles. Feedback from peers, educators, and technology greatly influences learner satisfaction and must be harnessed to provide effective learning experiences. Outcomes of active learning can be assessed online and implemented conveniently and successfully from the initiation of the course or module planning to the end of the evaluation process. Online learning has become accessible and convenient and allows the educator to track learner participation. The future of online education will continue to grow, and using active learning strategies will ensure that quality learning will occur, appealing to a wide variety of learning needs.

Effect of a performance improvement CME activity on management of patients with diabetes.

PubMed

Bird, Gary C; Marian, Kathy; Bagley, Bruce

2013-01-01

Primary care in the United States faces unprecedented challenges from an aging population and the accompanying prevalence of chronic disease. In response, continuing medical education (CME) initiatives have begun to adopt the principles of performance improvement (PI) into their design, although currently there is a dearth of evidence from national initiatives supporting the effectiveness of this methodology. The specific aim of this study was to demonstrate the value of a national PI-CME activity to improve the performance of physicians treating patients with diabetes. We analyzed data from the American Academy of Family Physicians' METRIC® PI-CME activity in a cohort of family physician learners. The study utilized the 3-stage design standard approved for PI-CME. Baseline and follow-up performance data across a range of clinical and systems-based measures were compared in aggregate. Data were assessed for 509 learners who completed the activity. Statistically significant changes occurred both for self-assessment of a range of practice aspects and for diabetes care measures. Learners recognized that the organization of their practices had improved, and mechanisms were in place for better staff feedback, as well as aspects of patient self-management. Based on the clinical data obtained from 11 538 patient charts, 6 out of 8 diabetes measures were significantly improved. The activity appears to have had a positive, measurable impact on the medical practice of learners and suggests that, when appropriately designed and executed, PI-CME on a national scale can be a useful vehicle to influence performance change in physicians and to inform future CME activities. Copyright © 2013 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the Council on CME, Association for Hospital Medical Education.

Using CALL in the Classroom: Analyzing Student Interactions in an Authentic Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hegelheimer, Volker; Tower, Dustin

2004-01-01

Recent CALL research has started to go beyond the comparison of CALL versus non-CALL environments to explore what learners do while going through CALL activities. One important strand within that area has focused on the use and utility of providing learners with opportunities to request modified input. While many studies have carried out research…

Lost Opportunities to Learn: The Effects of Education Policy on Primary Language Instruction for English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Kate

2007-01-01

This study examines the implications that state educational policies, such as high-stakes testing in English and Proposition 227, have on teaching and learning in primary language instruction for English learners in California. Utilizing cultural-historical activity theory of learning and development, this qualitative case study uncovers the…

Practical Math Skills: Situations--Strategies--Solutions. Intermediate Level. Grades 4-5-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncan, Jim

This material is a supplement to existing mathematics programs for young learners. The activities presented are based on assumptions about the young problem solver which are difficult to address in standard mathematics texts. In these pages it is assumed that each learner brings to the problem-solving effort a very personal experience base and a…

The Roles of Canadian Universities in Heterogeneous Third-Age Learning: A Call for Transformation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ratsoy, Ginny

2016-01-01

This article makes the case that Canadian universities--both within and beyond their campuses--must broaden their visions of third-age learners. Canadian third-age learners--defined for the purposes of this article as persons seeking formalized education who are in the stage of life beginning at retirement--are more numerous, active, financially…

Exploring Taiwanese Students' Perceptions of Active Explicit Vocabulary Instruction: A Case Study in an English Medium Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, I-Chia

2018-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is considered important in second and foreign language learning because learners' insufficient vocabulary has been consistently reported as a significant problem in their achievement of second-language (L2) learning. Despite of numerous vocabulary studies, few of them have implemented a learner-centered and interactive…

Advancing the Speaking and Listening Skills of K-2 English Language Learners through Creative Drama

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouillette, Liane

2012-01-01

In recent decades the United States has experienced a dramatic increase in children entering school whose home language is not English. If they are to achieve to their full potential, these children need direct and frequent interaction with individuals who can provide English language learners with accurate feedback. Creative drama activities that…

Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching: Pedagogical Design and Assessment of a Second Life Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiller, Shu Z.

2009-01-01

Guided by the principles of learner-centered teaching methodology, a Second Life project is designed to engage students in active learning of virtual commerce through hands-on experiences and teamwork in a virtual environment. More importantly, an assessment framework is proposed to evaluate the learning objectives and learning process of the…

Older Lifelong Learners' Motivations for Participating in Formal Volunteer Activities in Urban Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamashita, Takashi; López, Erick B.; Soligo, Marta; Keene, Jennifer R.

2017-01-01

In recent years, volunteering has received increasing attention as a unique form of learning, one which may complement lifelong learning programs for older adults. This study examined the underlying volunteer motivations as well as formal volunteer behaviors among older adult lifelong learners. Data from 277 members of the Osher Lifelong Learning…

Personalization of Learning Activities within a Virtual Environment for Training Based on Fuzzy Logic Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohamed, Fahim; Abdeslam, Jakimi; Lahcen, El Bermi

2017-01-01

Virtual Environments for Training (VET) are useful tools for visualization, discovery as well as for training. VETs are based on virtual reality technique to put learners in training situations that emulate genuine situations. VETs have proven to be advantageous in putting learners into varied training situations to acquire knowledge and…

Literacy Instruction in Multilingual Classrooms: Engaging English Language Learners in Elementary School. Language & Literacy Series--Practitioners Bookshelf

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helman, Lori

2012-01-01

This hands-on guide shows elementary school teachers how to create multilingual classroom communities that support every learner's success in reading, writing, and general literacy development. The author provides a practical overview of key ideas and techniques and describes specific literacy activities that lead to vocabulary and oral English…

Active Ageing and Universities: Engaging Older Learners. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillipson, Chris; Ogg, Jim

2010-01-01

This report reviews the engagement of older learners (defined as those aged 50 and over) in education and training with particular reference to their involvement in higher education. The ageing of populations was one of the most important trends in the 20th century and will raise major challenges in this century. Appended are: (1) Selected UK…

Engaging Learners' Comprehension, Interest and Motivation to Learn Literature Using the Reader's Theatre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabilan, Muhammad Kamarul; Kamarudin, Fadzliyati

2010-01-01

This article reports on a teacher's experiment with Reader's Theatre (RT), an interactive play reading activity with elements of reading aloud, drama and theatre, for her 20 unmotivated learners of literature in a premier school in Malaysia. Using RT, the students staged Angela Wright's "Potato People". The procedures and design of the…

Interactive TV: An Effective Instructional Mode for Adult Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Li-Ling; Iris, Carole

2004-01-01

The inclusion of interactive television (iTV) programs for learning is an emerging genre in education. Literature has concluded that any aspect of learning requires some form of interaction or feedback to be most effective. As television (TV) evolves from being a passive to an active medium, it has the potential to engage learners and reach a mass…

Multimodal Children's E-Books Help Young Learners in Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, Hani

2013-01-01

Many children struggle with reading and are seldom engaged in this process when teachers assign them to read. Young learners may lack motivation to read an dislike this activity because they have had frequently have unpleasant experiences with reading. If educators fail to provide support for struggling readers, these pupils will likely experience…

How Artefacts Mediate Small-Group Co-Creation Activities in a Mobile-Assisted Seamless Language Learning Environment?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, L. -H.; Chen, W.; Jan, M.

2012-01-01

The rich learning resources and contexts learners experience in their everyday life could play important roles in complementing formal learning, but are often neglected by learners and teachers. In this paper, we present an intervention study in "Move, Idioms!", a mobile-assisted Chinese language learning approach that emphasizes contextualized…

Vocabulary Instruction: Software Flashcards vs. Word Clouds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mansouri, Vahid

2015-01-01

When it comes to language learning, vocabulary learning is the main activity focused on. Vocabulary learning is the main problem and also the goal of new language learners. It is one of the major problems that language learners encounter during learning a new language. Krashen (1989) (cited in Tokac, 2005) points out the role of vocabulary in a…

Helping Children to Learn at Home: A Family Project to Support Young English-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jasinski, Mary-Anne

2012-01-01

The Coalition for Equal Access to Education (CEAE) is a Calgary-based nonprofit organization committed to working with community, education, and government stakeholders to promote access to quality, equitable education and services for K-12 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. CEAE is active in developing innovative projects, research…

Exploring Affiliation Network Models as a Collaborative Filtering Mechanism in E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Daniel; Sicilia, Miguel Angel; Sanchez-Alonso, Salvador; Lezcano, Leonardo; Garcia-Barriocanal, Elena

2011-01-01

The online interaction of learners and tutors in activities with concrete objectives provides a valuable source of data that can be analyzed for different purposes. One of these purposes is the use of the information extracted from that interaction to aid tutors and learners in decision making about either the configuration of further learning…

Impact of Metacognitive Practices and Assorted Assessment Modalities towards Creating Self-Regulated Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nair N., Sreevrinda

2014-01-01

Worldwide efforts are increasing to infuse thinking skills into the curriculum, which are part of cognitive behavior, and to include them in the instructional strategies, which will make the learner producer of knowledge and help to create a sense of responsibility among them. Metacognitive learning activities immerse students in challenging tasks…

Mobile Blogs in Language Learning: Making the Most of Informal and Situated Learning Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comas-Quinn, Anna; Mardomingo, Raquel; Valentine, Chris

2009-01-01

The application of mobile technologies to learning has the potential to facilitate the active participation of learners in the creation and delivery of content. Mobile technologies can also provide a powerful connection between a variety of formal and informal learning contexts and can help to build a community of learners. However these versatile…

A Web-Based Educational Setting Supporting Individualized Learning, Collaborative Learning and Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gogoulou, Agoritsa; Gouli, Evangelia; Grigoriadou, Maria; Samarakou, Maria; Chinou, Dionisia

2007-01-01

In this paper, we present a web-based educational setting, referred to as SCALE (Supporting Collaboration and Adaptation in a Learning Environment), which aims to serve learning and assessment. SCALE enables learners to (i) work on individual and collaborative activities proposed by the environment with respect to learners' knowledge level, (ii)…

Support and Promotion of Self-Regulated Learning through the Educational Material at the Hellenic Open University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikolaki, Evi; Koutsouba, Maria I.

2012-01-01

In distance education both the physical separation between learner and instructor, and the use of technology create an educational environment that is characterized by learning autonomy and the learner's active involvement. Because of these, self-regulated learning constitutes an inseparable concept of distance education. This study explores the…

Authentic Tasks to Foster Oral Production among English as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez Ortiz, Sandra Milena; Artunduaga Cuéllar, Marco Tulio

2018-01-01

Attaining oral production is a challenge for most English language teachers because most of the strategies implemented in class do not engage students in speaking activities. Tasks are an optimal alternative to engage learners in communicative exchanges. This article presents the results of a qualitative action research study examining the effects…

Developing Learners' Second Language Communicative Competence through Active Learning: Clickers or Communicative Approach?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agbatogun, Alaba Olaoluwakotansibe

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the impact of clickers, the communicative approach and the lecture method on the communicative competence development of learners who were taught English a second language (ESL). Ninety nine pupils from three primary schools participated in the study. Quasi-experimental non-randomised pre-test posttest…

Valuing the Adult Learner in E-Learning: Part Two--Insights from Four Companies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waight, Consuelo L.; Stewart, Barbara L.

2005-01-01

Purpose--To investigate how the adult learner is valued in e-learning corporate settings. Design/methodology/approach--Case study methodology was used for this research. Four Fortune 500 companies that had active e-learning initiatives for a minimum of four years were selected. Data for the development of the four cases were collected via…

The Impact of Learning on Health.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aldridge, Fiona; Lavender, Peter

A study was conducted of active adult learners in England to determine what impact, if any, there has been on their health as a result of learning. Data were obtained through a questionnaire mailed to 2,000 persons and 750 groups nominated for an Adult Learners' Week Award during 1998 and 1999. Provisions were made for sight-impaired respondents.…

Lecturers' Perception of Classroom Management: An Empirical Study of Higher Learning Institutions in Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grapragasem, Selvaraj; Krishnan, Anbalagan; Joshi, Prem Lal; Krishnan, Shubashini; Azlin, Azlin

2015-01-01

The classroom is a learning environment where active interactions and meaningful learning occur between learners and knowledge providers. The teachers and the learners have a unique relationship and this relationship is highly determined by their backgrounds and experiences. Teachers have the responsibility to manage the classroom with the aim of…

Reaching Out to All Students: The Integrated English Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, William H.

Traditional teaching of English language arts is based on a receptive-accrual view of learning, which places the learner in a passive rather than an active role in the teaching-learning process. This approach conveys to the learner the view that the subject matter is fragmented and that teachers prepare discrete, disconnected lessons. L.M.…

Vocabulary Acquisition in L2: Does CALL Really Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Averianova, Irina

2015-01-01

Language competence in various communicative activities in L2 largely depends on the learners' size of vocabulary. The target vocabulary of adult L2 learners should be between 2,000 high frequency words (a critical threshold) and 10,000 word families (for comprehension of university texts). For a TOEIC test, the threshold is estimated to be…

Radio Waves and Curriculum Pathways: Jamaican "At Risk" Learners Construct Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feraria, Paulette J.

2018-01-01

This paper explores radio play as an alternative space for learning language and literacy for Jamaican students labeled as 'at-risk' learners. Through the creation of a make-believe radio station in the classroom, students developed oral language skills as a necessary precursor for social literacy. They connected reading and writing activities and…

The Impact of a Web-Based Research Simulation in Bioinformatics on Students' Understanding of Genetics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gelbart, Hadas; Brill, Gilat; Yarden, Anat

2009-01-01

Providing learners with opportunities to engage in activities similar to those carried out by scientists was addressed in a web-based research simulation in genetics developed for high school biology students. The research simulation enables learners to apply their genetics knowledge while giving them an opportunity to participate in an authentic…

Teacher-Made Tactile Science Materials with Critical and Creative Thinking Activities for Learners Including Those with Visual Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teske, Jolene K.; Gray, Phyllis; Kuhn, Mason A.; Clausen, Courtney K.; Smith, Latisha L.; Alsubia, Sukainah A.; Ghayoorad, Maryam; Rule, Audrey C.; Schneider, Jean Suchsland

2014-01-01

Gifted students with visual impairments are twice exceptional learners and may not evidence their advanced science aptitudes without appropriate accommodations for learning science. However, effective tactile science teaching materials may be easily made. Recent research has shown that when tactile materials are used with "all" students…

Anxiety over EFL Speaking and Writing: A View from Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gkonou, Christina

2011-01-01

The assumption that foreign language learners experience a high level of anxiety mainly when faced with speaking activities implies that research should focus on those learners prone to anxiety over that skill. Despite not being widely investigated, foreign language writing anxiety also seems to be a concern for a large number of students. Drawing…

Modeling and Simulation of An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) for Mobile Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Hmouz, A.; Shen, Jun; Al-Hmouz, R.; Yan, Jun

2012-01-01

With recent advances in mobile learning (m-learning), it is becoming possible for learning activities to occur everywhere. The learner model presented in our earlier work was partitioned into smaller elements in the form of learner profiles, which collectively represent the entire learning process. This paper presents an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy…

Online Social Networks as Formal Learning Environments: Learner Experiences and Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veletsianos, George; Navarrete, Cesar C.

2012-01-01

While the potential of social networking sites to contribute to educational endeavors is highlighted by researchers and practitioners alike, empirical evidence on the use of such sites for formal online learning is scant. To fill this gap in the literature, we present a case study of learners' perspectives and experiences in an online course…

The Effect of Implementation of TBLT in Reading Comprehension Classes of Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madhkhan, Mozhgan; Mousavi, Seyed Mojtaba

2017-01-01

The present study investigates the impact of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension performance. Seventy participants were assigned randomly to the experimental and control groups. Having instructed the two groups with the same texts but different task types and activities (i.e., tasks in 4 types) during…

Launching Learners in Science, PreK-5: How to Design Standards-Based Experiences and Engage Students in Classroom Conversations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Kerry Curtiss; Veomett, George E.

2006-01-01

Teaching science means doing science and involves three elements: knowing content, knowing children, and teachers knowing themselves as teachers and learners. The authors describe principles and requirements that reflect National Science Education Standards for the active learning of science. They identify key ingredients for primary students and…

Learner's Guide: Water Quality Monitoring. An Instructional Guide for the Two-Year Water Quality Monitoring Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glazer, Richard B.; And Others

This learner's guide is designed to meet the training needs for technicians involved in monitoring activities related to the Federal Water Pollution Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. In addition it will assist technicians in learning how to perform process control laboratory procedures for drinking water and wastewater treatment plant…

The Effect of Task-Based Activities on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nahavandi, Naemeh

2011-01-01

Nowadays, preparing learners to communicate successfully in language classes is of utmost importance. But teachers face a lot of difficulties in teaching English in EFL contexts. One of the major problems is students' unwillingness to take part in reading classes. Reading classes seem boring for students who find no occasion to show their ability…

We Cannot See Them, but They Are There: Marketing Library Services to Distance Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dermody, Melinda

2005-01-01

Distance learners are a unique target-population for the marketing of library services and resources. Because these patrons do not visit the library often, if at all, it is crucial to actively promote the library resources and services available to them. Marketing strategies for distance learning library services need to take a multifaceted…

Changing Mental Representations Using Related Physical Models: The Effects of Analyzing Number Lines on Learner Internal Scale of Numerical Magnitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bengtson, Barbara J.

2013-01-01

Understanding the linear relationship of numbers is essential for doing practical and abstract mathematics throughout education and everyday life. There is evidence that number line activities increase learners' number sense, improving the linearity of mental number line representations (Siegler & Ramani, 2009). Mental representations of…

Parental Involvement and the Impact on Hispanic English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helo-Trevino, Mayra

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate if the participation of Hispanic parents of English Language Learners in school activities influence their children's education. This was done by deliberately taking steps to recruit parents to participate in their child's academics and school affairs. The data that was used to test if involvement of…

Effectiveness of Mathetics in Achievement in Chemistry at Higher Secondary Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elias, Jijish

2009-01-01

The application of psychology and technology are used in the learning process while we use programmed learning modules. In programmed learning we use the small steps of learning resulting in mastery. The modules helps to respond the learners activity and to give immediate feedback. The learners will get their own timing to go through the lessons…

A Problem Posing-Based Practicing Strategy for Facilitating Students' Computer Programming Skills in the Team-Based Learning Mode

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xiao-Ming; Hwang, Gwo-Jen

2017-01-01

Computer programming is a subject that requires problem-solving strategies and involves a great number of programming logic activities which pose challenges for learners. Therefore, providing learning support and guidance is important. Collaborative learning is widely believed to be an effective teaching approach; it can enhance learners' social…

Adult Learners' Use of Flexible Online Resources in a Blended Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cornelius, Sarah; Gordon, Carole

2009-01-01

This paper presents a case study of a blended programme for adults and discusses findings from a mixed-methods investigative study of learners' and tutors' experiences of the programme. The programme employs a set of flexible online resources, which are activity-based and designed to provide choice in study routes and modes of learning. Our…

Metodologia de la Investigacion Participativa (The Methodology of Participatory Research). Cuadernos del CREFAL 16.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yopo, Boris P.

The traditional educational method has focused on a passive stand from the learner. This passive stand can hinder creativity and analytical thinking. This work concentrates on a presentation of the Participant Research educational method. Participant Research is an adult-education method in which the learner can have an active role in his…

U.S. Adult Literacy Program Practice: A Typology across Dimensions of Life-Contextualized/Decontextualized and Dialogic/Monologic. NCSALL Report #2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purcell-Gates, Victoria; Degener, Sophie; Jacobson, Erik

A study created a typology of 271 adult literacy programs nationwide describing their distribution along two dimensions: (1) relevance of materials to learner needs and sociocultural context (life-contextual/decontextual), and (2) extent of learner control of decisions about program activities (dialogic/monologic). A questionnaire elicited…

Writing Practices for Mainstream Teachers of Middle School English Learners: Building on What We Know Works Effectively

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haas, Eric; Goldman, Julie; Faltis, Christian

2018-01-01

Improving the writing of middle-school English learners can improve their academic thinking, literacy, and content knowledge. The Writing Reform and Innovation for Teaching Excellence (WRITE) program uses six high-leverage writing practices and develops teacher capacity through professional learning activities anchored in the group grading of…

Predicting Student Satisfaction and Outcomes in Online Courses Using Learning Activity Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strang, Kenneth David

2017-01-01

The premise for this study was that learner interaction in an online web-based course could be assessed in relation to academic performance, or in other words, e-learning. Although some studies reveal that learner interaction with online content is related to student academic performance, it remains unproven whether this is casual, or even if…

Survey of factors influencing learner engagement with simulation debriefing among nursing students.

PubMed

Roh, Young Sook; Jang, Kie In

2017-12-01

Simulation-based education has escalated worldwide, yet few studies have rigorously explored predictors of learner engagement with simulation debriefing. The purpose of this cross-sectional, descriptive survey was to identify factors that determine learner engagement with simulation debriefing among nursing students. A convenience sample of 296 Korean nursing students enrolled in the simulation-based course completed the survey. A total of five instruments were used: (i) Characteristics of Debriefing; (ii) Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare - Student Version; (iii) The Korean version of the Simulation Design Scale; (iv) Communication Skills Scale; and (v) Clinical-Based Stress Scale. Multiple regression analysis was performed using the variables to investigate the influencing factors. The results indicated that influencing factors of learning engagement with simulation debriefing were simulation design, confidentiality, stress, and number of students. Simulation design was the most important factor. Video-assisted debriefing was not a significant factor affecting learner engagement. Educators should organize and conduct debriefing activities while considering these factors to effectively induce learner engagement. Further study is needed to identify the effects of debriefing sessions targeting learners' needs and considering situational factors on learning outcomes. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Study Partners Recommendation for xMOOCs Learners

PubMed Central

Xu, Bin; Yang, Dan

2015-01-01

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide an opportunity for people to access free courses offered by top universities in the world and therefore attracted great attention and engagement from college teachers and students. However, with contrast to large scale enrollment, the completion rate of these courses is really low. One of the reasons for students to quit learning process is problems which they face that could not be solved by discussing them with classmates. In order to keep them staying in the course, thereby further improving the completion rate, we address the task of study partner recommendation for students based on both content information and social network information. By analyzing the content of messages posted by learners in course discussion forum, we investigated the learners' behavior features to classify the learners into three groups. Then we proposed a topic model to measure learners' course knowledge awareness. Finally, a social network was constructed based on their activities in the course forum, and the relationship in the network was then employed to recommend study partners for target learner combined with their behavior features and course knowledge awareness. The experiment results show that our method achieves better performance than recommending method only based on content information. PMID:25663836

Using UAVs to Conduct Student-led Research Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olds, S. E.; Lewis, P. M., Jr.

2016-12-01

Recreational drones can inspire students to initiate research projects. These "toys" have a low cost (<$100), low weight (< 250 g, so do not require FAA registration), and an ability to carry small instrument packages, making them an ideal platform for conducting innovative investigations. This session describes an initiative by the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Education Committee to compile and distribute a free e-book that will encourage learners to use drones for science investigations. Our goal is to inspire learners to use UAVs to carry scientific instruments and/or capture imagery to conduct local-scale investigations. Experiments such as discovering their vehicle's maximum payload help learners understand what sensors they can use (or build) to conduct research. The e-book will encourage learners to practice UAV civility and safety through a pre-flight checklist and flying guidelines, and to consider science objectives and flight team roles in performing investigations. Activities also advocate for robust data and metadata-collection practices. Suggested activities encompass repeat photography investigations as well as engineering design skills such as designing a camera mount to obtain nadir or oblique imagery. Learners can also move to more sophisticated research using photogrammetric skills such as taking overlapping photographs to create 3D structure from motion (SfM) models. To encourage the use of onboard sensors, the team worked with an engineer to build a 33-gram prototype environmental logger called SABEL (Shelley [Olds] and Bob [Ellis]'s Environmental Logger). Assembled on an Arduino board, SABEL collects temperature, humidity, and GPS position. This presentation will provide examples of student-led investigations, instructions for building the SABEL sensor package, and the status of the new e-book compilation of student-focused activities using recreational drones to pursue science, math, engineering, and technology research investigations.

Differences in HIV knowledge and sexual practices of learners with intellectual disabilities and non-disabled learners in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Aderemi, Toyin J; Pillay, Basil J; Esterhuizen, Tonya M

2013-01-01

Introduction Individuals with intellectual disabilities are rarely targeted by the current human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) response, thereby reducing their access to HIV information and services. Currently, little is known about the HIV knowledge and sexual practices of young Nigerians with intellectual disabilities. Thus, this study sought to compare the HIV knowledge and sexual practices of learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities and non-disabled learners (NDL) in Nigeria. Findings could help in the development of HIV interventions that are accessible to Nigerian learners with intellectual impairments. Methods This cross-sectional, comparative study utilized a survey to investigate HIV knowledge and sexual practices among learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities and NDL in Nigeria. Learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities (n=300) and NDL (n=300) within the age range of 12 to 19 years drawn from schools across Oyo State, Nigeria, completed a structured questionnaire to assess their knowledge of HIV transmission and sexual practices. Results Significantly more learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities (62.2%) than NDL 48 (37.8%) reported having sexual experience (p=0.002). Of the sexually experienced female learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities, 28 (68.3%) reported history of rape compared with 9 (2.9%) of female NDL (p=0.053). Intellectual impairment was significantly associated with lower HIV transmission knowledge scores (p<0.001). Learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities were less likely than NDL (p<0.001) to have heard about HIV from most of the common sources of HIV information. In addition, when compared with non-disabled learners, learners with mild/moderate intellectual disabilities were significantly more likely to have reported inconsistent condom use with boyfriends/girlfriends (p<0.001), with casual sexual partners (p<0.001) and non-use of condom during last sexual activity (p<0.001). Conclusions Findings suggest that adolescents with intellectual impairments are at higher risk of HIV infection than their non-disabled peers. This gap could be addressed through interventions that target Nigerians with intellectual impairments with accessible HIV information and services. PMID:23394898

Cognitive Load Theory: implications for medical education: AMEE Guide No. 86.

PubMed

Young, John Q; Van Merrienboer, Jeroen; Durning, Steve; Ten Cate, Olle

2014-05-01

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) builds upon established models of human memory that include the subsystems of sensory, working and long-term memory. Working memory (WM) can only process a limited number of information elements at any given time. This constraint creates a "bottleneck" for learning. CLT identifies three types of cognitive load that impact WM: intrinsic load (associated with performing essential aspects of the task), extraneous load (associated with non-essential aspects of the task) and germane load (associated with the deliberate use of cognitive strategies that facilitate learning). When the cognitive load associated with a task exceeds the learner's WM capacity, performance and learning is impaired. To facilitate learning, CLT researchers have developed instructional techniques that decrease extraneous load (e.g. worked examples), titrate intrinsic load to the developmental stage of the learner (e.g. simplify task without decontextualizing) and ensure that unused WM capacity is dedicated to germane load, i.e. cognitive learning strategies. A number of instructional techniques have been empirically tested. As learners' progress, curricula must also attend to the expertise-reversal effect. Instructional techniques that facilitate learning among early learners may not help and may even interfere with learning among more advanced learners. CLT has particular relevance to medical education because many of the professional activities to be learned require the simultaneous integration of multiple and varied sets of knowledge, skills and behaviors at a specific time and place. These activities possess high "element interactivity" and therefore impose a cognitive load that may surpass the WM capacity of the learner. Applications to various medical education settings (classroom, workplace and self-directed learning) are explored.

Higher order thinking skills competencies required by outcomes-based education from learners.

PubMed

Chabeli, M M

2006-08-01

Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) brought about a significant paradigm shift in the education and training of learners in South Africa. OBE requires a shift from focusing on the teacher input (instruction offerings or syllabuses expressed in terms of content), to focusing on learner outcomes. OBE is moving away from 'transmission' models to constructivistic, learner-centered models that put emphasis on learning as an active process (Nieburh, 1996:30). Teachers act as facilitators and mediators of learning (Norms and Standards, Government Gazette vol 415, no 20844 of 2000). Facilitators are responsible to create the environment that is conducive for learners to construct their own knowledge, skills and values through interaction (Peters, 2000). The first critical cross-field outcome accepted by the South African Qualification Framework (SAQA) is that learners should be able to identify and solve problems by using critical and creative thinking skills. This paper seeks to explore some higher order thinking skills competencies required by OBE from learners such as critical thinking, reflective thinking, creative thinking, dialogic / dialectic thinking, decision making, problem solving and emotional intelligence and their implications in facilitating teaching and learning from the theoretical perspective. The philosophical underpinning of these higher order thinking skills is described to give direction to the study. It is recommended that a study focusing on the assessment of these intellectual concepts be made. The study may be qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods in nature (Creswell 2005).

Learning Natural Selection in 4th Grade with Multi-Agent-Based Computational Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dickes, Amanda Catherine; Sengupta, Pratim

2013-06-01

In this paper, we investigate how elementary school students develop multi-level explanations of population dynamics in a simple predator-prey ecosystem, through scaffolded interactions with a multi-agent-based computational model (MABM). The term "agent" in an MABM indicates individual computational objects or actors (e.g., cars), and these agents obey simple rules assigned or manipulated by the user (e.g., speeding up, slowing down, etc.). It is the interactions between these agents, based on the rules assigned by the user, that give rise to emergent, aggregate-level behavior (e.g., formation and movement of the traffic jam). Natural selection is such an emergent phenomenon, which has been shown to be challenging for novices (K16 students) to understand. Whereas prior research on learning evolutionary phenomena with MABMs has typically focused on high school students and beyond, we investigate how elementary students (4th graders) develop multi-level explanations of some introductory aspects of natural selection—species differentiation and population change—through scaffolded interactions with an MABM that simulates predator-prey dynamics in a simple birds-butterflies ecosystem. We conducted a semi-clinical interview based study with ten participants, in which we focused on the following: a) identifying the nature of learners' initial interpretations of salient events or elements of the represented phenomena, b) identifying the roles these interpretations play in the development of their multi-level explanations, and c) how attending to different levels of the relevant phenomena can make explicit different mechanisms to the learners. In addition, our analysis also shows that although there were differences between high- and low-performing students (in terms of being able to explain population-level behaviors) in the pre-test, these differences disappeared in the post-test.

Analysis of dermatology resident self-reported successful learning styles and implications for core competency curriculum development.

PubMed

Stratman, Erik J; Vogel, Curt A; Reck, Samuel J; Mukesh, Bickol N

2008-01-01

There are different teaching styles for delivering competency-based curricula. The education literature suggests that learning is maximized when teaching is delivered in a style preferred by learners. To determine if dermatology residents report learning style preferences aligned with adult learning. Dermatology residents attending an introductory cutaneous biology course completed a learning styles inventory assessing self-reported success in 35 active and passive learning activities. The 35 learning activities were ranked in order of preference by learners. Mean overall ratings for active learning activities were significantly higher than for passive learning activities (P = 0.002). Trends in dermatology resident learning style preferences should be considered during program curriculum development. Programs should integrate a variety of curriculum delivery methods to accommodate various learning styles, with an emphasis on the active learning styles preferred by residents.

Bimodal bilingualism as multisensory training?: Evidence for improved audiovisual speech perception after sign language exposure.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D

2016-02-15

The aim of the present study was to characterize effects of learning a sign language on the processing of a spoken language. Specifically, audiovisual phoneme comprehension was assessed before and after 13 weeks of sign language exposure. L2 ASL learners performed this task in the fMRI scanner. Results indicated that L2 American Sign Language (ASL) learners' behavioral classification of the speech sounds improved with time compared to hearing nonsigners. Results indicated increased activation in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) after sign language exposure, which suggests concomitant increased phonological processing of speech. A multiple regression analysis indicated that learner's rating on co-sign speech use and lipreading ability was correlated with SMG activation. This pattern of results indicates that the increased use of mouthing and possibly lipreading during sign language acquisition may concurrently improve audiovisual speech processing in budding hearing bimodal bilinguals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Practical Math Skills: Situations--Strategies--Solutions. Junior High Level. Grades 7-8-9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duncan, Jim

This material is a supplement to existing mathematics programs for young learners. The activities presented are based on assumptions about the young problem solver which are difficult to address in standard mathematics texts. In these pages it is assumed that each learner brings to the problem-solving effort a very personal experience base and a…

Exploring the Effect of the Linguafolio on Student Self-Regulated Learning Activities: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szalay, Keith

2017-01-01

There is a movement in secondary education praxis across U.S. public schools and policy makers that recognizes the value of developing the capacity for academic self-regulation in learners. While there are many interpretations of self-regulation, in this context self-regulation refers to a learner's capacity to understand their own learning as a…

Methods of Teaching Reading to EFL Learners: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanjaya, Dedi; Rahmah; Sinulingga, Johan; Lubis, Azhar Aziz; Yusuf, Muhammad

2014-01-01

Methods of teaching reading skill are not the same in different countries. It depends on the condition and situation of the learners. Observing the method of teaching in Malaysia was the purpose of this study and the result of the study shows that there are 5 methods that are applied in classroom activities namely Grammar Translation Method (GTM),…

The Effect of Mechanical and Meaningful Production of Output on Learning English Relative Clauses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abadikhah, Shirin

2012-01-01

The present study examined the effectiveness of mechanical and meaningful production of output on the learning of English relative clauses by Iranian EFL learners. The study involved two groups of learners (N = 36) who completed a pre-test, three activities and a post-test over an 8-week period. The collaborative dialogue of the participants was…

Examining the Use of Online Storytelling as a Motivation for Young Learners to Practice Narrative Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beckmann Wells, Patricia

2013-01-01

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the use of online storytelling as a motivation for young learners to practice narrative skills, measured through active choice, persistence and mental effort (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Web analytics was used to track 24 home schooled participants of an online application to teach a 21st…

Graduation by Portfolio at Central Park East Secondary School. A Series on Authentic Assessment and Accountability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darling-Hammond, Linda; Ancess, Jacqueline

Central Park East Secondary School (New York) is a school committed to authentic and learner-centered education. The school has developed an approach to assessing student performance that is active, authentic, and learner-centered. Students in the school's Senior Institute, a division comparable to the traditional grades 11 and 12, prepare 14…

Meeting the New AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner via Big6 Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Needham, Joyce

2010-01-01

"AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner." New standards for library media programs! What does it mean to practicing library media specialists? Does this mean they must abandon all the strategies, activities, and lessons they have developed based upon "Information Power's Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning" and create all new…

Supporting Learners' Agentic Engagement with Feedback: A Systematic Review and a Taxonomy of Recipience Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winstone, Naomi E.; Nash, Robert A.; Parker, Michael; Rowntree, James

2017-01-01

Much has been written in the educational psychology literature about effective feedback and how to deliver it. However, it is equally important to understand how learners actively receive, engage with, and implement feedback. This article reports a systematic review of the research evidence pertaining to this issue. Through an analysis of 195…

Usage Patterns Discovery from a Web Log in an Indian E-Learning Site: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahajan, Renuka; Sodhi, J. S.; Mahajan, Vishal

2016-01-01

An important research area in education and technology is how the learners use e-learning. By exploring the various factors and relationships between them, we can get an insight into the learners' behaviors for delivering tailored e-content required by them. Although many tools exist to record detailed navigational activities, they don't explore…

Language Learners' Writing Task Representation and Its Effect on Written Performance in an EFL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarei, Gholam Reza; Pourghasemian, Hossein; Jalali, Hassan

2017-01-01

The present study attempts to give an account of how students represent writing task in an EAP course. Further, the study is intended to discover if learners' mental representation of writing would contribute to their written performance. During a 16-week term, students were instructed to practice writing as a problem solving activity. At almost…

Communication Strategies in Primary Schools in Botswana: Interventions Using Cooks, Teacher Aides and Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mokibelo, Eureka B.

2016-01-01

This paper examines the micro planning activities that schools engage in to address learners' needs to make education work in rural primary schools of Botswana. The national language plan prescribes the use of English and Setswana only as languages of instruction at the primary school level. However, this plan is not practical in some regions…

Repeating a Monologue under Increasing Time Pressure: Effects on Fluency, Complexity, and Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thai, Chau; Boers, Frank

2016-01-01

Studies have shown that learners' task performance improves when they have the opportunity to repeat the task. Conditions for task repetition vary, however. In the 4/3/2 activity, learners repeat a monologue under increasing time pressure. The purpose is to foster fluency, but it has been suggested in the literature that it also benefits other…

Helping Learners Succeed: Activities for the Foreign Language Classroom. Language in Education: Theory and Practice, No. 36.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omaggio, Alice C.

In response to the need for dynamic foreign language materials with a communicative focus, this report addresses the relationship between learner characteristics and success in language learning. It suggests that a self-pacing individualized option should be available to students to deal with unique problems. The problems may be dealt with by…

E?ffects of English Language Proficiency on the Choice of Language Learning Strategies by Saudi English-Major Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Javid, Choudhary Z.; Al-thubaiti, Turki S.; Uthman, Awwadh

2013-01-01

It is reported that language learning is a creative and dynamic process and the learners are active partners in this process. This trend in language teaching motivated the researchers to investigate the learners' individual differences and the identification of language learning strategies (LLS) has become a major area of interest in this regard…

Developing Positive School-Home Relationships through Structured Conversations with Parents of Learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lendrum, Ann; Barlow, Alexandra; Humphrey, Neil

2015-01-01

Parents play a crucial role in their children's education, and their active involvement can lead to better outcomes. However, evidence suggests that parental engagement and confidence among perhaps the most vulnerable group of learners--those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)--may be lower than for those without difficulties.…

Moving from Analogue to High Definition e-Tools to Support Empowering Social Learning Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charbonneau-Gowdy, Paula; Cechova, Ivana

2009-01-01

Traditional educational and training settings have dictated that the act of learning is an activity that is motivated by learners, directed by a teacher expert and based on information transfer and data manipulation. In this scenario, it has been assumed that learners more or less acquire knowledge or develop sets of skills as a result of such…

Analogy as a Tool for the Acquisition of English Verb Tenses among Low Proficiency L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoke, Soo Kum; Hasan, Nor Haniza

2014-01-01

The teaching of English grammar to second language learners is usually a tedious, stressful and time consuming activity and even after all the effort, students have generally found these lessons boring and confusing. As such, innovative language instructors have been trying different approaches to the teaching of grammar in their classrooms. Using…

Service-Learning as a Means of Vocabulary Learning for Second Language and Heritage Language Learners of Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tocaimaza-Hatch, C. Cecilia; Walls, Laura C.

2016-01-01

Service-Learning (SL) has been defined as an experiential teaching methodology. Through SL, students participate in activities that benefit their community and enhance their learning experience. In the current study, Spanish as a second language (L2) and heritage language learners (HLLs) engaged in a SL project in which they translated English…

Using the Multimedia Strategies of Learner-Generated Drawing and Peer Discussion to Retain Terminology in Secondary Education Science Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Drusilla Brewington

2017-01-01

Student mastery of the academic vocabulary of course content is an important component of learning that content. This research study investigated the combination of two active multimedia strategies within 10 different high school science classrooms, to test for retention of science terminology. The dual process of learner-generated drawings…

Supporting Self-Improvement in Teaching, Literacy, Language and Numeracy. Tools for Staff Development. Module 4: Teaching and Learning Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basic Skills Agency, 2007

2007-01-01

This module provides teachers with practical tools to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities and enable learners to achieve their objectives in literacy, language and numeracy. Unit 1 explores approaches that are particularly appropriate to adult learners, developing thinking skills and involving them in decision making and…

Exploring Culture-Related Content in the COCA with Task-Based Activities in the EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopes, António

2013-01-01

The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) at the Brigham Young University website has been used in the English as a Foreign language (EFL) classroom to help learners better understand how language works at different levels of analysis and also to develop their writing skills. However, it also allows learners to explore culture-related…

The Relevance of Personality and Language Proficiency on the Participation Style of ESL Learners in Face-To-Face and Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chew, S. Y.; Ng, L. L.

2016-01-01

Recognising that active involvement with the target language is important in learning a second language, this research compared the participation style of the language learners in different discussion settings; online and face-to-face. The personality (extroversion and introversion) and language proficiency (high-intermediate and low-intermediate)…

Integrating Meaning and Structure in L1-L2 and L2-L1 Translations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Jung Hyun; Christianson, Kiel

2013-01-01

This article examined the integration of semantic and morphosyntactic information by Korean learners of English as a second language (L2). In Experiment 1, L2 learners listened to English active or passive sentences that were either plausible or implausible and translated them into Korean. A significant number of Korean translations maintained the…

The Writing of Chinese Characters by CFL Learners: Can Writing on Facebook and Using Machine Translation Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Qi; Lu, Zhouxiang

2014-01-01

The current study investigates the applications of the pinyin input system, a Chinese word processing method, for writing on Facebook in order to help CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners from two Irish universities to improve their handwriting in Chinese characters on paper. The data were collected from writing activities conducted over…

Examining Student Cognitive and Affective Engagement and Reading Instructional Activities: Spanish-Speaking English Learners' Reading Profiles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barber, Ana Taboada; Gallagher, Melissa; Smith, Peet; Buehl, Michelle M.; Beck, Jori S.

2016-01-01

Recent research has emphasized the key role of engagement in helping students succeed in school and beyond. Given the academic struggles that many English learners (ELs) face as they transition to middle school, exploring the facets of engagement in middle school ELs is needed. We established reader profiles for eight sixth grade Hispanic ELs and…

Interprofessional education in academic family medicine teaching units: a functional program and culture.

PubMed

Price, David; Howard, Michelle; Hilts, Linda; Dolovich, Lisa; McCarthy, Lisa; Walsh, Allyn E; Dykeman, Lynn

2009-09-01

The new family health teams (FHTs) in Ontario were designed to enable interprofessional collaborative practice in primary care; however, many health professionals have not been trained in an interprofessional environment. To provide health professional learners with an interprofessional practice experience in primary care that models teamwork and collaborative practice skills. The 2 academic teaching units of the FHT at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont, employ 6 types of health professionals and provide learning environments for family medicine residents and students in a variety of health care professions. Learners engage in formal interprofessional education activities and mixed professional and learner clinical consultations. They are immersed in an established interprofessional practice environment, where all team members are valued and contribute collaboratively to patient care and clinic administration. Other contributors to the success of the program include the physical layout of the clinics, the electronic medical record communications system, and support from leadership for the additional clinical time commitment of delivering interprofessional education. This academic FHT has developed a program of interprofessional education based partly on planned activities and logistic enablers, and largely on immersing learners in a culture of long-standing interprofessional collaboration.

The Evolution of Inquiry Activities in the Akamai Observatory Short Course, 2004-2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rice, E. L.; McElwain, M.; Sonnett, S.; Rafelski, M.

2010-12-01

The Akamai Observatory Short Course (AOSC) is a five-day course of activities designed to prepare college students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields for internships at observatories on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The design and implementation of inquiry-based activities in the AOSC have evolved considerably over the six years of the course. The content goals have always focused on the basic understanding of light and optics necessary to understand telescopes, but the scientific process goals gradually evolved to reflect the increasingly recognized importance of engineering design skills for successful observatory internships. In 2004 the inquiry-based activities were limited to one well-established Color, Light, and Spectra activity. In subsequent years more activities were customized and expanded upon to reflect the learners' diverse academic backgrounds, the developing goals of the short course, and feedback from internship hosts. The most recent inquiry, the Design and Build a Telescope activity, engaged students in designing and building a simple telescope, emphasizing science and engineering process skills in addition to science content. This activity was influenced by the Mission Design activity, added in 2006, that incorporated the application of inquiry-based learning to the engineering design process and allowed students to draw upon their diverse prior knowledge and experience. In this paper we describe the inquiry-based activities in the AOSC in the context of its year-to-year evolution, including the conceptual and pragmatic changes to the short course that influenced the evolution.

Fostering clinical reasoning in physiotherapy: comparing the effects of concept map study and concept map completion after example study in novice and advanced learners.

PubMed

Montpetit-Tourangeau, Katherine; Dyer, Joseph-Omer; Hudon, Anne; Windsor, Monica; Charlin, Bernard; Mamede, Sílvia; van Gog, Tamara

2017-12-01

Health profession learners can foster clinical reasoning by studying worked examples presenting fully worked out solutions to a clinical problem. It is possible to improve the learning effect of these worked examples by combining them with other learning activities based on concept maps. This study investigated which combinaison of activities, worked examples study with concept map completion or worked examples study with concept map study, fosters more meaningful learning of intervention knowledge in physiotherapy students. Moreover, this study compared the learning effects of these learning activity combinations between novice and advanced learners. Sixty-one second-year physiotherapy students participated in the study which included a pre-test phase, a 130-min guided-learning phase and a four-week self-study phase. During the guided and self-study learning sessions, participants had to study three written worked examples presenting the clinical reasoning for selecting electrotherapeutic currents to treat patients with motor deficits. After each example, participants engaged in either concept map completion or concept map study depending on which learning condition they were randomly allocated to. Students participated in an immediate post-test at the end of the guided-learning phase and a delayed post-test at the end of the self-study phase. Post-tests assessed the understanding of principles governing the domain of knowledge to be learned (conceptual knowledge) and the ability to solve new problems that have similar (i.e., near transfer) or different (i.e., far transfer) solution rationales as problems previously studied in the examples. Learners engaged in concept map completion outperformed those engaged in concept map study on near transfer (p = .010) and far transfer (p < .001) performance. There was a significant interaction effect of learners' prior ability and learning condition on conceptual knowledge but not on near and far transfer performance. Worked examples study combined with concept map completion led to greater transfer performance than worked examples study combined with concept map study for both novice and advanced learners. Concept map completion might give learners better insight into what they have and have not yet learned, allowing them to focus on those aspects during subsequent example study.

Activities for Calculators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hiatt, Arthur A.

1987-01-01

Ten activities that give learners in grades 5-8 a chance to explore mathematics with calculators are provided. The activity cards involve such topics as odd addends, magic squares, strange projects, and conjecturing rules. (MNS)