Education Commons^™

Criticism – The Thing We Hate The Most Makes Us The Strongest, Michael Preston

UCF Forum

I’m not much of a crier, but when a colleague critiqued a draft of my dissertation years ago, I cried like a baby.

Want To Make It In This World? Better Learn To Collaborate, Michael Preston

UCF Forum

Is there any greater struggle between instructor and student than the dreaded “group assignment”?

Embracing Multiple Definitions Of Learning, Andrew B. Barron, Eileen A. Hebets, Thomas A. Cleland, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Eileen Hebets Publications

Definitions of learning vary widely across disciplines, driven largely by different approaches used to assess its occurrence. These definitions can be better reconciled with each other if each is recognized as coherent with a common conceptualization of learning, while appreciating the practical utility of different learning definitions in different contexts.

Learning is a major focus of research in psychology, neuro- science, behavioral ecology, evolutionary theory, and computer science, as well as in many other disciplines. Despite its conceptual prevalence, definitions of learning differ enormously both within and between these disciplines, and new definitions continue to be proposed [1]. Ongoing disputes …

Syllable Circles For Pronunciation Learning And Teaching, Charlie Cullen, Keith Gardiner, John B. Whipple

Articles

Syllable Circles is an interactive visualization representing prominence as a feature in short phrases or multi-syllable words. They were designed for Computer Aided Pronunciation Teaching as a part of English Language Teaching. This study explores the question of if and how interactive visualizations can affect English Language Learners’ awareness of prominence, or stress, in English pronunciation. The study followed seven learners and three teachers. Think-aloud protocols, notes from direct observation and interviews of two groups allowed for six streams of data. It was found that interactive visualizations of syllable circles facilitate noticing prominence. Learners and teachers believed interactive visualizations were …

Meditation In The Classroom: Cultivating Attention And Insight, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Goals: Care must be taken by the instructor not to overemphasize achieving the goal(s) of meditation. Often, when there is too much emphasis on trying to reach the goal, the benefits of meditating can be hindered. On the other hand, when the goal of meditation is held loosely, then the goal is more easily approached. For this class meditation activity, the instructor might loosely hold several interrelated goals for their students: cultivate experiences of first person attention, concentration, and awareness while simultaneously developing capacities for insight, imagination, exploration, and discernment of ideas related to class content and applications to everyday …

Geographical Literacy, Attitudes, And Experiences Of Freshman Students: A Qualitative Study At Florida International University, Daniela F. Ottati

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the geography literacy, attitudes and experiences of Florida International University (FIU) freshman students scoring at the low and high ends of a geography literacy survey. The Geography Literacy and ABC Models formed the conceptual framework. Participants were freshman students enrolled in the Finite Math course at FIU. Since it is assumed that students who perform poorly on geography assessments do not have an interest in the subject, testing and interviewing students allowed the researcher to explore the assumption.

In Phase I, participants completed the Geography Literacy Survey (GLS) with items taken from …

“My Life As A Family Therapist”: A Journaling Method For Teaching Systems-Based Family Therapy Theories To Undergraduates, Paul A. Johns, Rachel L. Kreiger, Caroline M. Hurff

HDFS Educator Scholarship

This paper describes Process Journal: “My Life as a Family Therapist,” an assignment used in an undergraduate marriage and family therapy survey course to facilitate learning of systems-based marriage and family therapy theories. After starting with brief discussion of the value of teaching systems-based marriage and family therapy theories to undergraduates, the authors share detailed information about course content and objectives, following with explication of assignment objectives, procedure, and rationale. The paper concludes with reflections on the assignment that include student thoughts about the task and excerpts from their journal entries.

Students In Action: A Destination Based Learning Approach To Student Engagement, Ruth Craggs, Catherine Gorman, Kevin A. Griffin, Ziene Mottiar, Bernadette Quinn, Theresa Ryan

Books / Book chapters

No abstract provided.

The Purpose And Value For Students Of Pbl Groups For Learning, Vicki Skinner, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Tracey J. Winning

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Groups are central to problem-based learning (PBL) and educational and professional outcomes relevant to clinical education. However, PBL groups in practice may differ from theoretical conceptions of groups. Therefore, this study explored students’ understandings of the purpose and value of PBL groups for their learning. We conducted a naturalistic study with novice (first-year) students at two dental schools (Australia, Ireland), using observation and interviews analyzed thematically. Students constructed PBL learning as individual knowledge gain, and group purpose as information gathering and exchange; few students acknowledged the learning potential of group processes. Group value depended on assessment and curriculum context. Findings …

How Finger Tracing Of Temperature Graphs On An Ipad Can Support Primary School Students' Learning, Shirley Agostinho, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford, Paul Ginns, Steven J. Howard, Wayne Leahy, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 8th Cognitive Load Theory Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, June 15th - 17th, 2015.

Effects Of Observing And Making Movements On Learning, Sahar Bokosmaty, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 8th Cognitive Load Theory Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, June 15th - 17th, 2015.

A Case Study Of Giftedness And Specific Learning Disabilities: Bridging The Two Exceptionalities, Catherine M. Wormald, Karen B. Rogers, Wilma Vialle

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Despite being unable to dress himself, sit still on a chair, or write a legible sentence, Scott was, from a very early age, able to build whole cities from construction blocks, able to complete complex puzzles, and verbally precocious. Even with his disabilities and their contrast with his academic talent, he completed K-12 school and went on to excel at university. This case study represents the challenges many parents experience with identifying their children's disability and giftedness and ensuring that both exceptionalities are optimally developed. Through this case study, the roles an education system and the parents of such a …

The Learning Experience: Training Teachers Using Online Synchronous Environments, Stuart Woodcock, Ashley Sisco, Michelle J. Eady

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This study examined the effectiveness of an online synchronous platform used for training preservice teachers. A blended learning approach was implemented. Fifty-three students participated in the course. Qualitative interview data and quantitative survey data were collected about students' experiences using the platform, and analyzed via thematic content analysis and statistical analysis, respectively. The findings show that e-learning synchronous technology is an effective learning tool in enhancing preservice teachers' e-learning competency in subject matter and information communication technology skills. However, preservice teachers' competency to learn and implement e-learning for students is dependent on four hierarchal conditions (a) ease of use, (b) …

Computer-Based Learning Of Geometry From Integrated And Split Attention Worked Examples: The Power Of Self-Management, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford, Shirley Agostinho, Sahar Bokosmaty, Fred Paas, Paul A. Chandler

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This research investigated the viability of learning by self-managing split-attention worked examples as an alternative to learning by studying instructor-managed integrated worked examples. Secondary school students learning properties of angles on parallel lines were taught to integrate spatially separated text and diagrammatic information by using online tools to physically move text to associated parts of a diagram. The moving of text aimed to reduce learners' need to search between text and diagram, freeing cognitive resources for learning and affording learners' control of their learning materials. The main hypotheses that learners who self-manage split-attention worked examples would perform better on test …

Pre-Service Perspectives On E-Teaching: Assessing E-Teaching Using The Epec Hierarchy Of Conditions For E-Learning/Teaching Competence, Ashley Sisco, Stuart Woodcock, Michelle J. Eady

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This article examines pre-service teacher perspectives of teaching with an online synchronous (live-time) platform as a part of their training. Fifty-three students who participated in a blended learning (including both face-to-face and online lectures) course were assessed in a teaching simulation through an online presentation, and participated in questionnaires and interviews about their experiences as e-learners using the platform. The EPEC hierarchy of conditions (Ease of use, Psychologically safe environment, e-learning/e-teaching Efficacy, and e-learning Competence) for e-learning competency, developed based on an analysis of pre-service teachers' experience as e-learners in this same study, was used as a framework to assess …

Effects Of Integrated Physical Exercises And Gestures On Preschool Children's Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning, Myrto F. Mavilidi, Anthony D. Okely, Paul A. Chandler, Dylan P. Cliff, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Research suggests that integrating human movement into a cognitive learning task can be effective for learning due to its cognitive and physiological effects. In this study, the learning effects of enacting words through whole-body movements (i.e., physical exercise) and part-body movements (i.e., gestures) were investigated in a foreign language vocabulary task. Participants were 111 preschool children of 15 childcare centers, who were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants had to learn 14 Italian words in a 4-week teaching program. They were tested on their memory for the words during, directly after, and 6 weeks after the program. In …

Watch Your Step Children! Learning Two-Digit Numbers Through Mirror-Based Observation Of Self-Initiated Body Movements, Margina Ruiter, Sofie M. M Loyens, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

It was investigated whether task-related body movements yield beneficial effects on children's learning of two-digit numbers and whether these learning effects are affected by mirror-based self-observation of those movements. Participants were 118 first-graders, who were randomly assigned to two movement conditions and two non-movement control conditions. In the movement conditions, children were instructed to build two-digit numbers by making and simultaneously verbalizing out loud different sized steps representing the smaller units the numbers consisted of (e.g., the number "36" was construed by saying out loud "10," "20," "30," "35," "36," while making three big steps, one medium, and one small …

Leading School Communities To Implement A Sustainable School-Wide Model Leading To Enhancing Learning Outcomes For Students With Asd, Amanda A. Webster, Jane Wilkinson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The crucial role of school leaders in inclusive schools for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has received more attention in recent years. A pilot study was conducted in three Australian/Queensland schools to trial a shared model of school leadership in implementing a whole school approach for students with ASD. Schools established an ASD leadership team, which was headed up by the school principal and head of special education (HOSE) but also included a classroom teacher, and a parent of a child with ASD. Together the principal and HOSE led the team in assessing their current practices and establishing an …

Enhancing The Quality Of Pre-Service Teachers Learning Through The Conceptualizing Of Mentoring Strategies During The Practicum, Lynn D. Sheridan, Hoa Nguyen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Professional experience has been described as a cornerstone of teacher preparation that has a "profound impact on student teachers" (Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, & Shulman, 2002, p. 409). There is a wide variation of teacher education programs across the world however, in most countries teacher preparation programs consists of initial university-based course work followed by school-based student teaching practice. Clearly, this program structure has implications for the role of professional experience in creating genuine opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop teaching practice and knowledge about the profession. During the professional experience, mentoring pre-service teachers has been considered critical in ensuring a quality …

Intellectually Gifted Students Often Have Learning Disabilities, Catherine M. Wormald

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Mention the terms "intellectual giftedness" and "learning disability" and there is a general understanding of what each term means. However, most people are unaware that in many circumstances the two can go hand in hand. Current US research suggests that 14% of children who are identified as being intellectually gifted may also have a learning disability. This is compared to about 4% of children in the general population. No-one has been able to explain this discrepancy. While children who are intellectually gifted are acknowledged, the fact that some of these students could also have a learning disability is ignored. Teachers …

Technology Tools To Support Learning Design: Implications Derived From An Investigation Of University Teachers' Design Practices, Sue Bennett, Shirley Agostinho, Lori Lockyer

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The need to improve the quality of higher education has fostered an interest in technology tools to support effective design for teaching and learning. Over the past decade this interest has led to the development of tools to support the creation of online learning experiences, specifications to underpin design systems, and repositories to share examples. Despite this significant activity, there remain unanswered questions about what shapes university teachers' design decisions and how tools can best support their design processes. This paper presents findings from a study of university teachers'; design practices that identified teachers' perceptions of student characteristics, their own …

Transformation Of Traditional Face-To-Face Teaching To Mobile Teaching And Learning: Pedagogical Perspectives, Jan Turbill

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Teaching students in a face-to-face context has been and, in many institutions of education, still is the only form of teaching in higher education. However, in the past 20 years, there has been a slowly increasing movement toward transforming the higher education teaching and learning experience from face-to-face to a mobile online learning experience. For most teachers this move is quite a challenge and raises many issues and questions. These include questions such as: What mobile technologies are available to employ? What teaching practices are best to use? Will student learning outcomes be better or worse as a result? And …

"I 'Feel' Like I Am At University Even Though I Am Online." Exploring How Students Narrate Their Engagement With Higher Education Institutions In An Online Learning Environment, Sarah Elizabeth O'Shea, Cathy Stone, Janine Delahunty

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies. The study explores what impacted upon students' engagement in this environment and how different facets of their learning experience made a qualitative difference to how individuals enacted engagement. Drawing upon Sharon Pittaway's engagement framework, the article seeks to foreground student voice as the learners define …

Transforming Shark Hazard Policy: Learning From Ocean-Users And Shark Encounter In Western Australia, Leah Maree Gibbs, Andrew T. Warren

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Killing sharks is a popular strategy for reducing risk for beach-goers and ocean-users. But the effectiveness of kill-based strategies is debated and the ecological and economic costs are high. In Western Australia the state government introduced new policy in 2012 in response to shark-related fatalities, to track, catch and destroy sharks deemed to pose an 'imminent threat' to beach-goers. This paper reports on a survey of Western Australia-based ocean-users, and pursues two aims: to develop an understanding of the experiences of ocean-users in encountering sharks; and to learn about the attitudes of ocean-users towards shark hazard management. The research finds …

Effects Of Computer-Based Visual Representation On Mathematics Learning And Cognitive Load, Hsin I. Yung, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Visual representation has been recognized as a powerful learning tool in many learning domains. Based on the assumption that visual representations can support deeper understanding, we examined the effects of visual representations on learning performance and cognitive load in the domain of mathematics. An experimental condition with visual representations was compared to a control condition without visual representations among primary school students. The hypothesis that learning with visual representations would result in higher learning performance and lower cognitive load than learning without visual representations was confirmed by the results. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Cognitive Load, Cues, And Task Selection In Learning Probability Calculus, Jimmie Leppink, Steven F. Raaijmakers, Fred Paas, Tamara Van Gog, Anique De Bruin, Jeroen Van Merrienboer

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 8th Cognitive Load Theory Conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, June 15th - 17th, 2015.

Diagnosing Resources For Effective Learning Via Teacher And Parent Checklists, Bettina Harder, Susanna Trottler, Wilma Vialle, Albert Ziegler

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Checklists are an economical form of diagnostic instruments and are therefore well suited to support decision making on individual fostering of students in every day school life. We developed a teacher and a parent checklist based on the theory of educational and learning capital (Ziegler & Baker, 2013), that is, assessing the students' resources for learning. A study with 5th to 8th graders demonstrated the checklists' diagnostic properties. Overall, the teacher ratings of students' capitals proved to be reliable, objective and highly valid while parent ratings turned out to be less valid. Implications and possibilities of practical usage are discussed.

Learning Resources Within The Actiotope: A Validation Study Of The Qelc (Questionnaire Of Educational And Learning Capital), Anamaria Vladut, Wilma Vialle, Albert Ziegler

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In the Actiotope Model of Giftedness the important role of exogenous and endogenous learning resources (educational and learning capital) for successful learning is emphasized. However, so far no empirical evidence has been offered to establish a link between an actiotope and learning resources. An economical quantitative measuring instrument is the Questionnaire of Educational and Learning Capital (QELC). In an empirical study with a sample of 248 post-secondary school students from Germany, the empirical link between actiotope variables and learning resources was established. The results showed that the QELC has satisfactory psychometric qualities as well as acceptable factorial and concurrent validity.

Physics Students' Social Media Learning Behaviors And Connectedness, Rachel Moll, Wendy S. Nielsen, Cedric Linder

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Drawing on a complexity thinking perspective on learning, the conditions of emergence for complex systems were used as an analytic framework to characterize social media learning behaviours for their potential to promote connectedness. The authors' analysis identifies trends in secondary and tertiary physics students' social media use from focus group interview data and characterizes the nature of these behaviours for their potential to benefit students' understanding of the content of science curricula. While the authors' study focuses on physics learning, they propose implications that extend to other science learning contexts vis-a-vis how to transform connectivity learning behaviours into connectedness learning …

Giving Learning A Helping Hand: Finger Tracing Of Temperature Graphs On An Ipad, Shirley Agostinho, Sharon K. Tindall-Ford, Paul Ginns, Steven J. Howard, Wayne Leahy, Fred Paas

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Gesturally controlled information and communication technologies, such as tablet devices, are becoming increasingly popular tools for teaching and learning. Based on the theoretical frameworks of cognitive load and embodied cognition, this study investigated the impact of explicit instructions to trace out elements of tablet-based worked examples on mathematical problem-solving. Participants were 61 primary school children (8-11 years), who studied worked examples on an iPad either by tracing temperature graphs with their index finger or without such tracing. Results confirmed the main hypothesis that finger tracing as a form of biologically primary knowledge would support the construction of biologically secondary knowledge …